Daily Business Report: April 23 2026
California’s ‘Money-Grabbing Politicians’ Defend New Mileage Tax Buried in 2025 Budget Bill
by Katy Grimes| California Globe
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio reports that California Democrats just killed his bill to ban the imposition of a new MILEAGE TAX on drivers!
“WATCH as these money-grabbing politicians defend charging YOU 6-cents per mile – or $900 per year on top of gas/car taxes!” DeMaio says.
Democrats plan to charge drivers for driving anywhere.
DeMaio’s bill, AB 1783, would have prohibited local governments from imposing a mileage tax, which was buried in the Governor’s Budget trailer bill last year. And would prohibit a state agency from spending funds for the study, planning, or administration of a tax, fee, assessment, or charge based on VMT.
Supervisors Move to Make Secret Meetings Public
By Lisa Halverstadt | Voice of San Diego
County Supervisor Joel Anderson successfully pushed a trio of transparency measures on Wednesday.
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously passed each of his proposals to explore ways to make secret board subcommittees public, set guardrails for county-funded polling and improve the county’s response to records requests.
The board’s decision follows reporting by Voice of San Diego on board subcommittees being held behind closed doors, board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer’s county-backed poll-testing of potential ballot measures and the county’s slow-rolling and denials of public records releases.
By Mireya Miner | Times of San Diego
Books are his business, but Library Shop SD manager Scott Ehrig-Burgess uses a TV term to describe his feelings about the San Diego Book Crawl.
“We’re always nervous this will be the year it jumps the shark,” Ehrig-Burgess said. “But, early indications are that people are more excited than ever.”
The book crawl, which starts Saturday, is an annual event sponsored by the San Diego Library Foundation. Organizers said they started the event nine years ago to draw in bookworms who love to explore the shelves, find new titles and meet other book lovers. It has since grown into one of the largest book crawls in the country, according to Ehrig-Burgess.
