As his congressional campaign continues, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro returned to Albany Monday to call on the state to suspend the gas tax.
The former Assemblyman joined fellow Republicans in the New York State Senate and Assembly at the capitol to call for an immediate suspension of fuel taxes in the wake of skyrocketing prices.
Inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have contributed to dramatic increases at the pump. According to GasBuddy, the average cost of a gallon in New York is $4.42.
“Reckless spending out of Washington and Albany has fueled inflation to the point where it is now costing American families $296 a month more to live than it did only two years ago only before the pandemic and New Yorkers need us to act quickly,” Molinaro said.
Molinaro is running against second-term Democratic Congressman Antonio Delgado of the 19th district. First elected mayor of the Village of Tivoli in 1994 at age 19, he later served in the Assembly before becoming county executive in 2011. He also lost to then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2018.
Molinaro says restarting the Keystone Pipeline will boost domestic production.
“If America says we will no longer buy fuel from tyrants and dictators, if we would stop negotiating with countries that are dead set on attacking us and instead explore safely - in New York and across America - the expansion of supply, we send a message to the world and to American consumers that we're interested in confronting this problem comprehensively,” he said.
On WAMC’s Congressional Corner Tuesday, Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts’ 2nd district threw cold water on that idea.
“People say to me, ‘Oh, all he needs to do is just turn back on the Keystone Pipeline switch and that will take care of everything.’ Well, first of all, the Keystone Pipeline was never built so there's no switch to turn on,” McGovern said. “Secondly, even if it was built and was at full blast, we are told that right now, it maybe might be a penny a gallon for people.”
A bipartisan push to include a fuel tax suspension in the state budget due at the end of the month is gaining momentum in Albany. The Democratic-controlled state Senate passed it as part of its one-house budget Monday and Republican Senators Peter Oberacker and Fred Akshar have introduced legislation that would suspend the state gas tax through August.
Oberacker, who represents the 51st District, says Gov. Hochul’s $216 billion proposed state budget has plenty of room for the suspension.
“The example that was just given was that there's a house fire and this house is burning down. Well, I'm a volunteer firefighter and I've got an answer for it. I've got the answer to the burning house. All of us understand what people are going through. Families, individuals, businesses, they're struggling to make ends meet and it's getting worse every day,” the Republican said. “We need to provide direct and immediate relief and that is exactly what suspending this gas tax will do.”
Governor Hochul says she is not ruling it out. Speaking to reporters in Colonie Monday, the Democrat says discussions are ongoing.
“We already have a cap the state's share right now, the sales tax component is capped. It's capped at 8 percent. Counties have a different dynamic right now. I mean, theirs continues to go up because it's a percentage of the sale and so that's an area we're having conversations with,” she said. “But, we understand that this is one area we should be looking at. We are looking at it, but I also know that many of our funds are for roads and bridges and the people who are calling for the end of the gas tax are also asking for more money for infrastructure.”
Molinaro brushed off Hochul’s concerns that suspending the state’s gas tax would only lead to price gouging by oil companies.
“This government seems terribly concerned about corporations gouging. This is the same government that, by the way, had for two years emergency authority keeping us from doing thousands of things,” he said. “Perhaps they might lean in on corporations and others to be sure that they don't gouge. As importantly, consumers make choices and with those choices, businesses have to respond. But the biggest price gouger in, perhaps even in America, is government and perhaps we put a check on that.”
