Republicans are calling on the governor to suspend the state’s gasoline tax for 60 days to give Maine drivers a price break at the pumps – relief the state already afforded itself in this year’s budget by exempting vehicles on state business from paying the 25.9-cent per gallon fee.
At a press conference held at a gas station near the Statehouse, Republican leaders called on Gov. John Baldacci to call the Legislature back into session to deal with the gas price emergency.
“Huge increases in the last few days … have caused considerable hardships and some fear for the people of Maine,” said Sen. Paul Davis, the Senate minority leader. “They need help and help must be given to them.”
Republicans presented a list of proposals that added up would total $42 million – with most of the money coming out of the gas tax that funds the state Department of Transportation.
“The Department of Transportation shouldn’t be looked at to bear the brunt,” said Rep. Josh Tardy, the assistant minority leader in the House. He called on Baldacci to “sharpen the executive pencil” and find savings. Curtailing the expansion of the Dirigo Health insurance program was one suggestion he gave.
Baldacci was in Washington County on Tuesday afternoon and not available for comment.
Beth Nagusky of the governor’s Energy Resources Council said “everything is on the table,” but Baldacci believes “the problem lies at the federal level and requires a federal solution.”
Oil companies are taking “outrageous profits” at the expense of the consumer, and even if the gas tax were suspended, there’s no guarantee the price would go down, Nagusky said. The governor wants the Bush administration to probe the pricing practices of the oil companies and, in the meantime, the state is encouraging residents to conserve fuel.
“Driving six miles per hour slower could save you as much as the gas tax,” Nagusky said.
Several other states, including Georgia, have suspended or are considering suspending their gas taxes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, whose damage to oil refineries has sent gas prices to well over $3 a gallon and as high $3.50 for regular gas in parts of Maine.
The state earlier this year, in a little discussed part of the 2006-2007 budget, already exempted vehicles on state business from paying state and federal gas taxes that combined are 44.3 cents per gallon. The state did so to save money – more than $500,000 this year and $600,000 next – and essentially is taking it from the DOT, which won’t receive those revenues. The exemption goes into effect on Sept. 17.
The state gas tax alone raises close to $184 million annually for the DOT.
Suspending the gas tax for 60 days is just one idea, Republicans said, but it would save consumers and cost the state the most money – around $40 million. They also are proposing other ideas that would save consumers around $2 million:
– Repealing the tax on heating oil used by businesses;
– Repealing the automatic indexing of the gas tax that goes up with inflation;
– Reducing most administrative state vehicle travel by 15 percent;
– Ordering a temporary change to state employees’ work schedules from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days, whenever possible;
– Expanding state efforts to coordinate and improve car pooling on a statewide level; and
– Instructing the Department of Environmental Protection to investigate the use of lower-grade diesel and gasoline fuels.
Republicans admitted that eliminating the automatic indexing of the gas tax wouldn’t do much to help consumers this year since it already went up in July and won’t go up again until 2006. They were using the opportunity, they said, to take the tax off “automatic pilot.”
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