Rendell speaks out against gas tax cuts
HARRISBURG – Democratic lawmakers renewed their call Tuesday to cut the state’s gas tax by 12 cents a gallon for the next six months as a way to relieve the economic pain of motorists shelling out $2 a gallon at the pump. But even before the lawmakers from both ends of the state could hold their Capitol press conferences, Gov. Ed Rendell offered a list of reasons why he thinks cutting the gas tax is an ineffective and rash solution to skyrocketing fuel costs.
As he had done a few weeks earlier, state Rep. Peter Daley (D-California) Tuesday called for slashing the 25.9 cents per gallon gas tax to 14 cents a gallon, but this time, the veteran lawmaker offered a stick with the carrot.
Daley said his bill would hit gas station owners with a third-degree misdemeanor if they didn’t pass on the price reduction to motorists.
“Pennsylvanians are crying out, saying this is ridiculous,” he said. “Something needs to be done.”
State Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union) said he supports measures like Daley’s to temporarily reduce the gasoline tax.
“Here we are, at the start of the summer travel season, and gas prices have gone up to the point that traveling by automobile will be a serious drain on the wallets of the people of Pennsylvania,” Roberts said in a statement. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t consider ways to ease this financial burden on travelers.”
Joining Daley and Roberts was state Sen. Allyson Schwartz, D-4 (Montgomery), who said prices at her suburban Philadelphia stations are creeping up to $2.25 a gallon. Schwartz, the Democratic nominee for Congress in the 13th District, said the high gas prices threaten to undo all the work the state has done in trying to attract tourists to Pennsylvania.
“People are traveling again for the first time since Sept. 11, and we don’t want to do anything to discourage them,” she said.
Schwartz said her bill would cut the gas tax for a maximum of six months. But if in that time prices fall below $1.80 a gallon, the full gas tax would be reinstated. Both Schwartz and Daley propose using $300 million from a projected budget surplus to pay for the money lost by nearly halving the gas tax.
The governor responded that, first of all, it now appears any surplus will be eaten away by the federal government’s giving the state less money for medical costs.
But the biggest reason Rendell said he’s against cutting the tax is because there is no way to guarantee that oil companies would pass that lower price onto motorists. And even if he did reduce the gas tax, he said he would then be put in the politically uncomfortable position of having to raise it back when the crisis is over.
“Who wants to raise it back 12 cents? Not I,” he said.
Rendell said he wants to wait and see if the Saudis’ promise to increase petroleum production brings gas prices down. Pennsylvania should also wait until Congress finishes investigating why prices are “spiraling out of control” when oil companies are reporting profits of 70 percent to 90 percent, he said.
Finally, Rendell said lowering the gas tax would devastate the state’s road improvement projects: “We ought not to take money away from our roads when we have no way of mandating the consumers would see prices go down 12 cents.”
However, Rendell said his stance does not mean that Daley’s proposal is dead on arrival.
“I won’t say that. If 100 percent of the Legislature thinks it’s a good idea then it’ll pass,” he said.
That prompted state Rep. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat, to interrupt: “I’m a member of the Legislature, and I think it’s a bad idea.”
Rick Martinez can be reached at 717-705-6330 or rmartinez@calkins-media.com.