The latest report from AAA Northeast shows the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Massachusetts has skyrocketed 69 percent since this date last year.
Today’s price of $4.96 for a gallon of gasoline represents the highest average price ever recorded in Massachusetts. Only a month ago, the price was $4.30, which is 15 percent lower than it is today. The steady increase in prices has prompted state lawmakers and their Governors in New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire to suspend, extend their suspensions, or act soon on suspending their state gas tax in order to provide relief for their state’s motorists. Despite sitting on substantial budget surpluses, speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have both rejected similar tax relief measures and are instead using their time this week to schedule a vote to override the Governor’s veto of their bill which gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
“Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka seem unfazed by the record price of gasoline in Massachusetts and with good reason. The climate lobby and their allies hold tremendous influence over Beacon Hill leadership, and for them, $5 a gallon gas is a feature of their program, not a bug in the economic system. They want families to be unable to afford fuel in order to change their driving habits, and they are not particularly picky about how they make that happen,” noted Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
“Instead of trying to provide some relief for the working residents of our state, Beacon Hill leaders are calling lawmakers back into the State House in order to override the Governor’s common-sense veto of the bill that will give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Their focus continues to be solely aimed at appeasing the special interest groups that have influence on the internal workings of the Democratic party rather than trying to help struggling middle- and working-class Massachusetts motorists,” continued Craney.
“Instead of wasting everyone’s time on a disastrous and ill-thought-out vote to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the Speaker and Senate President should suspend the state gas tax. That would send a clear message that they care about ordinary Massachusetts people. But the reality is they don’t care, and they would rather use their political capital elsewhere,” concluded Craney.