Albany Pols Consider Gas Tax Holiday as Fuel Prices Continue to Soar

Gas prices in New York City have spilled over the $4/gallon mark, sending gas taxes skyrocketing right along with them. So lawmakers in Albany now are calling for gas tax holidays, hoping to offer customers a little break.

Assemblyman James Tedisco and state Senator Greg Ball are proposing measures that will drop the state's 8-cent excise tax, 8-cent sales tax and 17-cent Petroleum Business Tax during Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends, a move that they estimate would save motorists a total of $19 million.

In New York, motorists are levied one of the highest gas tax rates, about 69 cents per gallon in federal, state and local taxes, according to the state Petroleum Council, a trade organization. In Vermont, it's 53.4 cents; in Massachusetts, it's 47.9 cents; and in New Jersey, it's 41.9 cents.

At the BP gas station on Classon and Atlantic Avenues, where regular gas is now $4.09/gallon and diesel fuel is $4.79/gallon, motorists were full of complaints about the soaring gas prices, as they filled up their tanks.

“I think it’s outrageous,” said a customer who did not want to give his name. “You put 50 bucks in your car, and you can only ride like half the day with it. I’m starting to ride my bike.”

Another customer blamed the rising gas prices on what he believed was a personal assault on President Obama.

“I think it’s politically motivated; it’s gotta be, because there’s plenty of oil reserves,” said Christopher Kelly Burwell, Sr. “I think it’s the Republicans trying to get Obama out of office. They’ve got ties to the oil companies, and they’re helping the oil executives profit, because it will make Obama look bad, and it will affect his reelection.”

In 2006, as gas prices rose to $3, Albany tried to soften the blow in some counties by eliminated gas taxes above the $2-per-gallon mark and capping state sales tax to 8 cents per gallon instead of at-cost. But for some reason, it didn’t seem to lower the overall prices of gas at stations in any of those counties.

Lawmakers speculated that gas merchants either absorbed the cost, unaware that the change was supposed to represent a cost savings for the customer, or that they were in fact aware but were pocketing the difference saved.

Since then, almost every county has drifted back to the old method in which gas is taxed on the cost rather than on a per-gallon basis. This means that as the price of gas rises, the tax paid by the consumer goes up as well.

A gas tax holiday, although but a brief three days, will provide some relief, particularly for those who are planning long road trips.

Back at the BP station on Classon, the merchant said he had no idea what the state gas tax was, whether it had ever been levied at his station per gallon versus per cost, nor what a potential gas tax holiday could mean for his customers.

Bed-Stuy Patch will follow up with the gas stations in the neighborhood to see whether, during these holidays, gas prices drop for the customer accordingly.