How The High Cost of Driving is Affecting Californians

Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, April 28, 2026:

• A health care labor union in California submitted more than 1.5 million signatures this week to place a billionaire tax on the November ballot.
• It’s been two months since the war in Iran began, and the resulting energy crisis has made the cost of driving a major concern here for millions of Californians. In a state where people rely heavily on cars, the rising costs are forcing some drivers to make financial sacrifices, with some giving up the car altogether.

CA Billionaire Tax May Soon Be on Ballot

A proposed California billionaire tax is one step closer to making the November ballot, according to backers of the controversial measure.

The healthcare labor union backing the proposal announced Monday that it submitted to election officials more than 1.5 million signatures supporting the measure, nearly twice as many as required.

If the secretary of state validates 850,000 signatures of registered California voters, the measure, called the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, will appear on the November ballot.

Voters will then decide whether to impose a one-time, 5% tax on the assets of California’s roughly 200 billionaires, who would have the option to pay either in a lump sum or over five years.

As Driving Costs Rise, Californians Face Tough Decisions

The Bay Area and California have long had some of the country’s highest gas prices, and they’ve soared in recent weeks, driven in part by the war with Iran. But sky-high gas prices are only one piece of a broader surge in driving costs that is reshaping life in the Bay Area, where residents already endure grueling, car-dependent commutes.

Rising vehicle prices, insurance, maintenance and loan payments are forcing many drivers to make stark tradeoffs — stretching budgets, delaying major purchases or abandoning car ownership altogether.

Low-income workers may be more affected by sudden spikes in transportation costs, said Michael Anderson, who researches transportation economics at UC Berkeley. He explained that people with low-income jobs are more likely to be required to work in person and outside of normal business hours, when public transportation is unavailable, forcing them to drive more.

For Shekinah Samaya-Thomas, 61, of East Oakland, the cost of driving is a matter of survival. On a recent March afternoon, she waited in line with other Bay Area drivers at a Costco gas station in San Leandro, where regular was $5.19 for a gallon.

Faced with rising transportation costs and what she described as an already “bare bones” lifestyle, she said if prices kept rising, she’d be forced to cut one of the few things left that bring her and her husband joy: their streaming subscriptions.