Several states are pushing to suspend or eliminate their gasoline taxes There’s also been a push to suspend the 18-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax. Trump has said “it’s a great idea.” (He has some nerve given his actions have caused prices to soar.)
Really? It seems rather shortsighted and likely ineffective to me.
The issue is the consequences of suspending or eliminating gasoline taxes.
Gasoline taxes are structured primarily as “user fees” dedicated to transportation infrastructure, highway maintenance, and environmental remediation.
Oops, suddenly none of that matters?
Federal Highway Trust Fund –
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that without intervention, both the Mass Transit Account and the Highway Account will exhaust their cash reserves around 2028. Cumulative shortfalls are projected to reach approximately $295 billion over the next decade.Peterson Foundation
Georgia has taken the gas tax off and has done it before during the Biden Administration. The suspension is time limited but still well received by most drivers. It is costly but the State has been running budget surpluses for some years now so basically it doesn’t leave the highway department high and dry.
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Imagine when it is put back? Isn’t the question why and how there have been years of surpluses?
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The tax was put back in the instance of the 2022 exemption, and everything went fine. I appreciated the extra effort of doing it since the state was running a surplus and although it was actually small dollars it did lighten the mood of the gloom and doom crowd. This year it has just been repeated, and it appears to lighten the mood of the folks I hear usually complaining. Gas is something that is constantly in our faces since we daily pass the big lit up price per gallon signs. It creates what I think is outsized grumbling and if the Governor and Legislature can do something it helps the mood. The surplus has been occurring due to in migration from other states and increases in commercial and industrial activity that steadily increases economic activity and more tax revenue.
I personally miss the days when the roads were less crowded and the grocery stores and parks weren’t always crowded but that is what it is.
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