California voters want state officials to bankroll tax incentives for electric vehicle buyers once federal credits expire next month but are wary of rules to phase out sales of gas cars, according to an exclusive POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll.
What happened: Nearly two-thirds — 64 percent — of the more than 1,400 registered voters surveyed said they would support California using state funding to maintain EV tax incentives, with 80 percent of Democrats saying they back the approach. Nearly 60 percent of independent voters also said they support state-funded EV incentives, though the number dropped to 43 percent among Republicans.
That level of support shrank when voters were asked whether or not they supported state regulations that would ban the sale of new gas cars starting in 2035, with 46 percent of respondents saying that they supported those policies and 47 percent saying they did not. Support among Democrats dropped 20 points to 60 percent, while only 40 percent of independents and 31 percent of Republicans backed sales mandates.
At the same time, voters reported feeling the pinch of gasoline prices. Thirty-six percent of voters said gas prices put a significant or extreme burden on their household budget and 28 percent said the burden was moderate. Twenty-three percent said the burden is minor, and 13 percent said they feel no burden at all.
