Three states have suspended their gas taxes, about two dozen are considering some form of relief and even a group of Democrats in the United States Senate have proposed suspending the federal gas tax. The California Legislature, meanwhile, has left on recess without providing relief to California drivers and the governor remains dead-set on a clunky, belated cash giveaway. What gives?

On Friday, the governor’s office released its official legislative language outlining how the governor’s plan would work.

As drafted, the proposal does not specifically mention the $400 figure cited by Gov. Gavin Newsom in his State of the State address.

It also would provide relief to owners of vehicles up to a certain, unstated value.

As you might suspect, this was left blank to allow for some back and forth between the governor and the Legislature.

“The reason that is silent in the bill language is because the administration understands that this is an area where the Legislature wants to have some input and some further discussion … the same, for that matter, goes for … the vehicle valuation,” H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance, told CalMatters.

In other words, the governor’s office is committed to a protracted back-and-forth over this particular scheme to provide relief to Californians, particularly low-income Califonians, hard hit by high gasoline prices.

“This is a half-baked proposal from a governor who took off on vacation as Californians struggle with $6 a gallon gas,” said Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, in response. “If the governor really wanted to ease the pain of inflation, he would support our plan to take 50 cents per gallon off the price of gas immediately instead of handing out a no-bid contract to send rebates that are months away.”

Gallagher has a point. Other states have simply and swiftly provided relief by just suspending their gas taxes. There’s nothing stopping California from doing the same.

To Gallagher’s latter point, the governor’s proposal does allow for the state to enter into a no-bid contract for a vendor to actually provide the relief.

“The sole reason that that’s in there is solely a matter of speed and timing and being able to get relief out there to people as fast as possible,” Palmer told CalMatters.

But what could be faster than just waiving the gas tax for a few months? The issue is high gasoline prices. California’s second-highest gas tax rate in the country adds substantially to the cost of gas. Since there’s already a surplus and already an intention of setting aside money for relief, why not just go with the straightforward option?

We urge readers to reach out to their legislators and demand an end to these time-wasting games out of the governor’s office.