House leaders strip two-month gas tax suspension from supplemental spending bill

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance today criticized House leaders for removing a proposed two-month suspension of the state gas tax from the House version of the supplemental spending bill, eliminating even a modest amount of relief for Massachusetts drivers struggling with high costs.

The proposed two-month suspension of the state’s 24-cent-per-gallon gas tax would have provided direct savings at the pump for Massachusetts drivers. While limited in duration, that relief would matter to families already facing high electricity, heating, housing and other costs. House leaders are now refusing to provide taxpayers even that relief.

“The Governor’s two-month gas tax suspension would have provided some relief at the pump, while Mike Minogue has proposed a more substantial approach that would suspend the gas tax whenever prices rise above $4 a gallon,” said Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Executive Director Paul Diego Craney. “There are ideas on the table to give taxpayers a break, but legislative leaders don’t seem interested in any of them. Massachusetts families are being squeezed from every direction, and Beacon Hill’s response is to keep collecting every penny it can from them at the pump.”

The House Ways and Means Committee removed the gas tax suspension while advancing its own multibillion-dollar supplemental spending package. Healey’s proposal was expected to provide approximately $120 million in temporary relief to drivers.

“This was never going to solve Massachusetts’ affordability problem. It was two months and 24 cents a gallon. But when given the choice between providing even a little relief to taxpayers or keeping the money in government, House leaders chose government,” said Craney.

MassFiscal has repeatedly called on state leaders to pursue broader and more permanent measures to lower the cost of living in Massachusetts, including reducing taxes and reversing costly climate mandates and net-zero energy policies that have contributed to rising household expenses.

With House leaders refusing even this temporary relief, MassFiscal pointed to Question 5 on the November ballot as an opportunity for taxpayers to secure economic relief themselves. Question 5 would limit the growth of state tax collections under Chapter 62F and return excess revenue to taxpayers through rebates. Research from Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis found the measure would make taxpayer rebates two to four times more frequent and two to seven times larger, averaging roughly $200 to $250 per year when spread across both refund and non-refund years.

“This exposes just how hollow Beacon Hill’s affordability rhetoric has become and represents a stunning failure of leadership from Governor Healey,” said Craney. “She proposed modest relief for drivers, and the leaders of her own party in the House wouldn’t even give her that. Beacon Hill is willing to spend billions of taxpayer dollars, but House leaders won’t let drivers keep an extra 24 cents a gallon for two months. Both Governor Healey and Mike Minogue have called for relief for taxpayers, but legislative leaders have made clear they aren’t listening.”

“Fortunately, voters don’t have to wait for the Legislature. Question 5 gives taxpayers the opportunity to vote themselves economic relief by strengthening the law that returns excess tax collections to them. If Beacon Hill won’t provide relief, voters can do it themselves on Election Day,” closed Craney.