LA motorists wary of Trump suggestion to raise gas tax

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- President Donald Trump this week signaled an openness to increasing fuel taxes by 25 cents a gallon to help pay for his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan.

A Democratic senator said the president seemed supportive of the idea during a meeting at the White House on his plan to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and ports. The White House unveiled a proposal Monday to use a $200 billion federal investment to leverage more than $1 trillion in public and private funding to pay for the upgrades.

But the idea of funding the plan with a hike in the gas tax doesn't sit well with many Los Angeles motorists. Gas prices, including taxes, are already high in California, many of them noted.

"I think there's a great need for it across the country, I know there is, but California seems to get hit the hardest with all kinds of gas taxes and I don't want to pay anymore," said Mary Forrest of Encino. "I mean it's already $3.45. No thank you, no more!"

California just had an additional 12-cent-per-gallon increase take effect last year to pay for statewide road repairs. And the state is already paying some of the highest gas prices in the country.

California's average gas price statewide this week is around $3.33 a gallon, according to the Auto Club - second among states only to Hawaii.

"Absolutely not," said motorist Neal Gochman of Simi Valley. "Not for us here in California. Maybe somewhere else in the United States, that's just going to make it more expensive. Didn't we have a tax increase to pay for the roads that we already decided to do? So I would say absolutely not, no way."

At the federal level, the tax on gasoline and diesel hasn't been increased since 1993.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.