At nearly $7 per gallon in some places, California is boasting the highest gas prices in the nation. While state authorities across the country and federal authorities have been debating the notion of gas tax suspensions to bring at least minor relief at the pump, the state of California is set to enact a new gas tax, effective July 1st.

The gas tax increase was a controversial tax hike enacted by the California state Assembly under the cloak of darkness, with the help of a few Republican sellouts. When taxpayers caught wind of the hike, they cried foul, and worked to get a repeal of the new tax on that November’s ballot.

Prop 6 would have won, but at the last minute, Democrat operatives inside the government were able to get the language changed on the ballot measure. The new language was purposefully confusing, making a “no” a “yes”– and vice versa. The language was manipulated, so that many voters thought they were voting to reject the gas tax hike (as in, “NO, we don’t want this!). A “YES” vote was completely counter-intuitive, but would have meant that, yes, voters are agreeing to repeal the hike. It was deliberately twisted to confuse the voters, and the bad guys won.

Lots has happened since that time, and a lot of people in the state have forgotten that the new tax is set to descend on July 1. The state Assembly has steadfastly refused to offer citizens a temporary suspension of the 51-cent state gas tax. With families already struggling to fill their tanks, put food on the table, and even find baby formula, the Assembly has chosen to move forward with the nearly 3-cent increase. As of this weekend, the California state gas tax will stand at 53.9 cents per gallon.

Governor Newsom is beginning to ramp up for a presidential run, and it is not a good look for the most expensive state in the Union to be proposing charging residents even more for the daily basics, at a time when the Democrat party looks to be taking a shellacking in the midterms. Perhaps he’s hoping to be able to still run on Roe V. Wade when the time comes.