Budget Amendments Would Suspend State Gas Tax

The day before the Massachusetts State Senate begins debate on their annual budget, which includes amendments to temporarily suspend the state gas tax, AAA Northeast reported that gasoline prices have increased 13 cents in the last week. On April 25, the Massachusetts House voted against temporarily suspending the state gas tax during their budget debate, and today’s price is 61 cents higher than it was a month ago.

“The last time lawmakers were presented with the option to lower the state gas price by temporarily suspending the gas tax, the price for gasoline was considerably cheaper. That was only a month ago. If this trend continues, we can expect to see gasoline reach more than six dollars a gallon in Massachusetts by the summer. Senate President Karen Spilka and the State Senate are scheduled to begin budget debates tomorrow and they can work to lower fuel costs by simply adopting an amendment that would suspend the collection of the state gas tax. If the senate wants to help its motorists, they can. The question that will be answered this week is if they want to, and we hope they will see the value in supporting their constituents with lower fuel costs,” stated Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“The cost of virtually everything is increasing. The Massachusetts legislature could lower costs by suspending one of these regressive taxes. This week, we will see how serious the state senate is about standing up for working families,” concluded Craney.