Does anyone know how it works if the gas tax is suspended? Does that mean for whatever time period the gas tax is suspended, that is lost revenue that will never be replaced? While I get need for relief, this is not how to it in my opinion. I don't think most people understand how the gas tax works, what it funds, and that it's a dedicate tax. My 3 pennies.

 

Gas taxes are often siphoned off for a variety of things not directly related to roadway maintenance, etc. However, any time revenue is lost it is either made up later or funding is cut some place else. So whether cutting the taxe is a good idea depends on what it effects or how it is balanced by reductions some place else.

 

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WBFF) — With eye-popping prices at the pump, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and top legislative leaders are moving forward on a 30-day suspension of the state’s gas tax, with lawmakers expected to sign-off on the emergency measure as early as next week.

Maryland’s gas tax is approximately 37 cents per gallon. With a budget surplus of more than $7.5 billion, Hogan called for the emergency suspension of the gas tax “to help with the pain at the pump” and the expected pause will last 30 days.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore City, said 30 days allows lawmakers to assess the situation and wait for national measures to take effect. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, had called for a three-month suspension of the gas tax as a way to utilize the surplus.

“This is a really important initiative to give temporary relief to Maryland working families,” said Ferguson. “I think there was unanimous support to move this relief forward.”

Ferguson said the surplus means no road projects or expenditures are in jeopardy with a suspension of the gas tax and they plan to backfill that revenue. He estimates the gas tax would cost about $100 million.

 

Here's what I want to know. With the price of crude dropping 30% in a week according to the business news, shouldn't prices at the pump be coming down as quickly as they went up?

 

Jim / crewzer

 

You're such an optimist.

 

Gasoline prices in our western NC neck o’ the woods have actually started to fall. Our favorite local Shell station dropped from $3.999 to $3.959, and another favorite, an Exxon up the street from the Shell, dropped from $4.149 to$3.999.

It’ll be a while before things get back to “normal”.

Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer

 

Here in California the Super Dem controlled legislation would not even take the no tax holiday to a vote yesterday. There is a talk of a "rebate" but it may only go to certain groups. Hmmm I guess sitting on 45-65 billion dollar surplus is not enough.

 

It's a simple matter of refunding priorities. You can suspend the fuel tax so people using fuel get a break, and use other state tax funds (of which there are record amounts) to reimburse that fund. Or they can continue to use those other funds to buy John and Jane Doe a brand new tent, catalytic heater, needles and syringes in downtown Portland instead of reimbursing the gas tax funds. Like my last trip to Ontario, everyone was going across the river into Fruitland Idaho to buy their fuel. We don't have that advantage here, but imagine if we did. Imagine what it would do for Ontario if they could keep the business and jobs in Ontario? Current price of fuel in Ontario, $5.30. Current price across the bridge in Fruitland, ID, $4.95.......

Not sure the uses of the Fuel Tax would carry a lot of sympathy for some when the Oregon Legislature, this session, decided the Feds were not doing enough and awarded another $600 stimulus check to certain people, fully funded out of the state coffers., expanded the child credit on state taxes to ridiculous levels and gave away record amounts of money to "buy" the loyalty and votes of rural counties, and are hell bent on tolling I-5 and I-205 in the Portland area....which already has a 10¢ per gallon additional tax on Multnomah County gas sales. They have record surpluses and there was an article just a couple of weeks ago saying another record windfall for the State is projected. The state Gas Tax went up another 2¢ p/gal this January as part of a 10¢ p/gal by 2024 taxing program passed in 2017.
The folks in Salem have plenty of room to transfer funds around and cover the cost. They could easily reimburse the highway funds for suspended taxes if they wanted. By doing it that way, the people actually using the fuel would see the benefit and not a homeless program in down town Portland the money would be otherwise spent on. They would rather take that money and divert it to social programs that a lot of us aren't eligible for because of income or physical locations.

An article in the Oregonian, Yahat's News and the Bend Bulletin had state officials (Charles Boyle) spinning the whole thing saying that suspending the fuel taxes would affect programs and grants throughout state government, including Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. State or Federal Gas taxes have nothing to do with ODFW. Just more political spin and "Creative Financing".

 

It seems like I remember something from earlier days and previous gas gouging prices. When the price of oil p/barrel goes up, it takes about 3 days for the price to filter out to the gas station. When the price p/barrel goes down, it takes up to 6 months for the prices to filter out to stations because they are trading on futures and not what is coming out of the ground today. Grossly over simplified, but somewhere in the ball park, I think. For example, when the price of oil was last at todays price, price at the pump was $3.84.

 

I find it interesting there are surpluses in gas taxes because I don't see it and I don't have one and neither does the state of Oregon. In Oregon it's a dedicated fund and can only be spent on transportation related expenditures. If you don't believe that then you need to educate yourself. Look at the projects on the books that need funding and there is not enough funding to do half of that work. I can't speak for the City of Portland or other places that supposedly have a surplus. In my 25 years in public works, I have never heard of such a thing. I have an $12M budget and I have $30M in needs and that is just maintenance. Capital improvements and upgrades is in the $100M and all the while costs keep going up faster than the tax. What is asphalt made of??? Roads, bridges, storm pipe, and all of the maintenance and equipment to take care of that infrastructure is expensive and gas taxes do not even pretend to keep up. Not even close. I also have never seen surplus in fed fuel taxes since it's the same boat as most states.

Jim - In Oregon, OSMB gets a portion of that gas tax. Boats on trailers use the road. I want to say it's .5 - 1.5 cents per gallon that goes to pay for boat stuff. ODFW helps fund boat ramps with grant funds from OSMB. Oregon Department of Aviation also receives a portion of fuel taxes and through that ODA funds grants for airport maintenance. I could go on and on for volumes.

Anyway..... ​​​​​​​

 

I didn't say they had a surplus in gas taxes.
There is a glut, excess, in projected revenue income to the State of Oregon. So much so that once again, the kicker tax refund has been triggered...
They have a surplus in other taxes - general fund - triggering the Kicker and they only have to include 98% of that in the kicker. They just 'gave' away millions and millions to local counties and legislative districts, unless Gomberg was lying in his newsletter. That way you and I, the consumer paying these taxes, get a better price at the pump for a couple of months instead of the druggies in Portland Portland getting the surplus general funds for free paraphernalia.

As far as I know ODFW gets funds from ODOT for culvert and fish passage programs only. Whether this comes from gas taxes or general funds is has not been clear in the budgets.
The Marine Board only gets what they / ODOT & yes, believe it or not, OSU, (via boat registrations & and an OSU periodically conducted survey of boat use/consumption) determine the amount of gas used in boats on the water. So, they have to figure out how much of the gas station taxed fuel is pumped into boats for their motors to use. Nontaxed / off road fuels used in boats or red dyed diesel doesn't fall under that.

All of those lost gas taxes at the pump need to be replaced by the 2% of the billions of excess revenues that Oregon collected. The kicker this year is around 1.9 Billion. That is only 98% of the surplus. So, what happened to the all of those other excess funds that could be used to replace the gas tax for a month or two? .

So no ones budget or projects are compromised or under funded anymore than what they are now. OSP doesn't loose any troopers and Thatcher's road safety company can still contract flaggers. The only ones that might go without extra money would be the druggies and the new social programs that they want for Portland and Eugene. And there is time to figure it out for next moth since the suppliers don't have to pay this months taxes until the 20th of next month. So instead of them sending them a check, they send a bill saying "General Fund now owes Fuels Tax Fund XXXXX.XX


PS....We're going to have to get together one of these evenings at Washington Street or NDB&G.

 

Or an explanation how the fuel in the tanks when refined and bought was for half of what the current price per barrel of oil.

 

I have a 2000 mi. Round trip scheduled to go to So. cal next week, I am not looking forward to the prices of diesel down there. My local station outside portland Is running at 5.29 gl. I figured 10 mpg. @ $6.00 gl. Avg. 2000 miles is $1200 dollars. 😳

 

I hear ya were taking a road trip from San Diego to North Carolina and back through Texas in a couple of weeks and plan on being gone a month. Gas will probably cost me an extra $1000 for the trip but you only live once and you can't take it with you.