Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Film Review..........................3
Finance..................................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Legals................................ 6-7
Looking Up...........................7
Pets........................................8
Police.....................................4
Sports....................................4
Weekend
Forecast
Rep. Waters Presents New USPS
Alzheimer’s Awareness Stamp
Congresswoman Maxine Waters with famed neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black and representatives from Alzheimer’s Greater Los Angeles, the Alzheimer’s Association, and ACTS Caregiver Support Group at the
“Brain Health Throughout Life” Community Forum held last week. Photo Provided by Office of Congresswoman Maxine Waters. •
A Scary Thing Is Going to
Happen on Halloween Night
By Rob McCarthy
Look for sinister clowns roaming the streets
and driving around in cars on Halloween night,
straight from the movie It. That’s the prediction
from spirit stores that say Pennywise from the
Stephen King novel and movie remake is handsdown
the adult costume of the season. This
clown doesn’t put a smile on the children’s faces.
Clowns appearing after dark and holding
red balloons aren’t all that’s going to happen
once the sun goes down on October 31. Gas
stations must raise their prices at midnight
when California’s gasoline and diesel excise tax
jumps to begin paying to repair local roads and
the state’s aging highway system and bridges.
Few things unnerve Southern California
drivers like gas price increases, even if it’s
just a few pennies.
Gasoline and diesel prices are headed higher
on November 1, and motorists and truckers will
pay the freight on a $53 billion, 10-year deal
that Governor Jerry Brown and Sacramento
lawmakers inked in April. The ambitious plan
shares some of the new tax proceeds with local
cities and the county to fix roads.
What’s in it for South Bay drivers, truckers
and companies with fleets of delivery trucks?
Lanes of the 405 freeway are supposed to be in
good or fair condition when the tax ends in 2017.
Five-hundred bridges must be fixed, the plan
guarantees the taxpayers. All but 10 percent of
drainage culverts in the state will be rehabbed.
To reach those goals, the state is collecting
an additional 12 cents on a gallon of gas at
the pump and in higher vehicle registration
fees. Truck drivers and diesel motor operators
have an even higher buy-in than commuters. A
gallon of diesel ranged from 2.93 to $3.19 per
gallon at Inglewood stations earlier in October.
Truckers and fleet owners will be paying
between $3.13 and $3.39 on Wednesday with
the new pump tax. That 20-cent jump in tax
per gallon will hit the trucking and delivery
services hardest, and it’s uncertain whether
package delivery services like FedEx and UPS
will raise their prices. Shipping on Amazon
could be affected too.
The new pump tax comes as Southern
California gasoline prices were leveling
off after a spike caused by Hurricane Harvey,
according to the Automobile Club of Southern
California. The club reported the average
price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los
Angeles-Long Beach area was $3.06 per gallon
on October 12. That was four cents lower
than the previous week, and 14 cents below
September’s price, according to the AAA.
The decline in gas prices--which were 23 cents
higher for a gallon a year ago--led Brown and
Sacramento officials to act now to rebuild roads
and infrastructure rather than wait. The supporters
of the road improvement plan said the repairs
to streets, highways, freeways and bridges were
overdue, and delays would inflate the cost.
Normally on November 1, drivers start using a
winter blend of gasoline that costs them less at the
pump. However, the stations won’t be lowering
their prices after Halloween, says a AAA
spokesman. “We are not expecting that switch to
drive down prices this year because taxes on
gasoline will also increase by 12 cents a gallon
on November 1,” said spokesman Jeffrey Spring.
The station owners will have to hustle to
have the pump prices reset at midnight, said
Ken Pellman with the Los Angeles Weights
and Measures department. Changing the prices
is almost a daily chore for Southern California
stations, he said, and many of them have
switched to electronic signs that advertise prices.
Fuel sold in California is taxed three ways:
local sales tax, state excise tax, and a federal
tax on each gallons sold. The tax rate change
on Wednesday will look like this:
Gasoline: The state’s base excise tax increases
to 30 cents per gallon on November
1. That doesn’t include local sale tax. That
additional per-gallon tax is due to hit 47.3
cents by midyear 2019. The current rate is
18 cents/gallon.
Diesel: The state’s base diesel fuel excise
tax jumps to 36 cents a gallon on November
1. The current rate is 16 cents. California also
collects 8.4 percent in state and local sales tax
on diesel, and levies an additional 1.75 percent
diesel-fuel sales tax on suppliers. That tax will
more than triple to 5.75 percent on November 1.
Starting next year, vehicle owners will pay a
new “transportation improvement fee” ranging
from $25 to $175, depending on the value of
their vehicle. Electric vehicle owners must pay
a $100 road improvement fee for their zeroemissions
cars and trucks, but that fee won’t
kick in until July 2020.
Pellman said inspectors with the Weights and
Measures department won’t be out checking
gas stations at midnight, however. Motorists
usually call his office with complaints if a
station’s price on the sign is lower than the
actual price at the pump. When there is a
discrepancy, he said the consumer is entitled
to the lowest listed price. •
Friday
Sunny
76˚/63˚
Saturday
Sunny
78˚/62˚
Sunday
Sunny
76˚/63˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Daily News on a Weekly Basis - Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - October 26, 2017