The Massachusetts Senate rejected a Republican-led effort on March 24 to suspend gas tax collections through Labor Day, in response to the recent hike in gas prices.
Republican state Sen. Ryan Fattman proposed the gas tax suspension as an amendment to a $1.6 billion spending bill — that the Massachusetts House unanimously passed — according to the State House News Service.
State Sen. Michael Moore, a Democrat, said the Massachusetts Motor Fuels Tax — which adds an additional 24 cents per gallon for gas — is not a sustainable source of revenue.
“I’ve never voted to do away with it, because it is needed right now, we need some way of having direct funding to pay for our infrastructure,” Moore said. “I do think we need to find an alternative source of revenue that we can dedicate toward our infrastructure.”
The amendment garnered “encouraging” bipartisan support from Republican Senators Fattman, Bruce Tarr and Patrick O’Connor, as well as Moore and other Democrat Senators such as Paul Feeney, Barry Finegold, Anne Gobi, Mark Montigny, Marc Pacheco, Walter Timilty and John Velis voting in favor.
Aside from Fattman, other Republican lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment.
“It was good that we got some really strong bipartisan support for the legislation,” Keath Christensen — chief of staff to Fattman — said. “It’s definitely a nonpartisan issue and should be bipartisan.”
Sen. Pacheco said the suspension of the gas tax would be a temporary solution.
“It was, in the short term, in the best interest of helping and sending a message to people that we hear them, we care about them, we understand that they’re going through a difficult time,” Pacheco said.
Mark Schieldrop — a public affairs specialist of AAA Northeast — said gas prices are reaching numbers “we haven’t seen since 2008” after following President Biden’s order to ban the import of Russian oil.
According to the AAA Northeast, an average high of Mass. gas prices — $4.36 per gallon on March 11 — has dropped to $4.18 as of April 4.
“There’s no question that consumers and motorists are taking it out on the chin right now with the high gas prices,” Schieldrop said. “It not only affects how much it costs to fill up your vehicle, but a lot of the products we buy are affected by this as well.”
Schieldrop说80%购买商品的内在bobapp下载d by trucks running on diesel fuel — a fuel impacted by rising gas prices — and added this leads to inflation in the price of other goods.
“There’s something about gasoline that’s really a sort of thermometer for the overall economy,” Schieldrop said. “It’s in our face.”
President Biden approved the release of one million barrels of oil into the market per day for the next six months, according to a March. 31 press release.
“That is obviously going to have an effect on the price,” Christensen said.
Opposition to the amendment cited its negative impact on bond ratings and how the gas tax’s absence may impact the budget.
“The state is flush with money right now, we had a $1.5 billion surplus this fiscal year,” Christensen said. “It’s about putting that money toward the resources that need the most.”
Senator Feeney said despite the spike in fuel prices, which he admitted are causing “a lot of economic pain,” he struggled with how to confront the amendment to suspend the gas tax.
“I’m not crazy about the policy of a long-term suspension of a gas tax, I think the gas tax is an important piece of revenue for the Commonwealth,” Feeney said.
捐助也描述了C的长期目标ommonwealth as ending reliance on fuel and petroleum.
“That’s where we want to get to,” Feeney said. “But the bottom line is the reality that exists now for people is that they are reliant on their automobiles and reliant on fueling up at the gas pump.”
