By Dan Murphy
A wide array of New York elected offiicals, and candidates for office this year, have come out supporting a temporary repeal of the state and federal gas tax in New York State. The current gas tax for New Yorkers is 48 cents per gallon, which includes a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. For many of us, this would lower the cost of gas to under $4 per gallon….for now, we understand that the prices will keep going up for a while.
Congressman Tom Suozzi, who is running in the democratic primary for Governor, called for an immediate repeal of the gas tax while campaigning in Westchester last week.
Democrat Robert Zimmerman, who is running to replace Suozzi in Congress, also called for a gas tax reprieve. “I strongly support the suspension of the federal gas tax through the end of the year and call upon our leaders in Congress to endorse the senate and house legislation. The severe increase in gas prices affects every aspect of our lives, and the time to act is now.”
State Senate republicans have also introduced legislation, The New York Gas Tax Relief Act, to repeal the state portion of the gas tax until September 1. Republican businessman Harry Wilson supported the gas tax repeal, tweeting, “Kathy Hochul doesn’t realize that this is the worst part of the day for most New Yorkers. She thought in an interview this week that the state gas tax was 10 cents/gal instead of the 48 cents/gal it really is. Clueless.”
So far, Governor Hochul has not publicly supported the gas tax repeal.
