Republicans To Call For Gas-Tax Relief
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- April
- 29
Republicans in the state Assembly and Senate are calling for a repeal of the state’s gas taxes this summer in the wake of soaring gas prices.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, has a news conference scheduled for tomorrow morning and Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, has an announcement scheduled for the afternoon.
Republicans want to suspend a 32.75 cents tax imposed in New York. Yet some leaders have questioned the effectiveness of gas-tax caps or suspensions, saying there is no guarantee that oil companies will pass on the savings to consumers.
That’s been Gov. David Paterson’s opinion in recent days, and Democrats say a gas-tax suspension in the summer months—when about 40 percent of the state’s sales-tax revenue from gas is collected because of the busy travel season—would cost the state up to $800 million in lost revenue.
That would be a tough hit when lawmakers are warning of tough fiscal time ahead. But supporters say the measure is needed to give New Yorkers relief at the pump.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Good idea. Take the pressure off of President Bush, who should be telling his Arab buddies and Oil executives to cut the baloney…NOOOOOOOOOOOOO let’;s blame it on TAXES.
When you eliminate the tax, and the revenue to NYS, be assured you’ll be writing a check to the Arabs and the Oil Companies. Within two weeks, they will gobble up the tax savings and we’ll be out of luck. The answer is in THE WHITE HOUSE, getting tough on this issue.
Or maybe Oilmen Bush and Cheney are secretly happy we’re dropping tons of dough into Big Oil’s coffers.
This is good for William Gouldman, who is seeking to unseat Assemblywoman Sandra Galef in the 90th Assembly District. He spearheaded this issue on April 25 when a gallon of gasoline hit $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline in Westchester. It is good to see that the State Legislature is taking his ideas and are looking to suspend the 32.75 cents tax on a gallon of gasoline.
I agree William Gouldman was out front on this. I saw him on TV calling for a cut in gas taxes. If we pay 32.75 cents of every gallon of gasoline for taxes. This is crazy. I heard his opponent Assemblywoman Sandy Galef say we should study the issue.
We are paying these high prices NOW.
The time for studing the problem is over. We all know that we are paying $4.00 a gallon of gasoline.
It is refreshing to see Republicans fighting back in New York.
You should check out Thomas Friedman’s Op-ed in today’s NY Times on why the federal gas tax holiday is a stupid idea, mostly because it’s a short term bandaid. An excerpt here…
“Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.
When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.
No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?
The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.””
In the meantime, Congress is dickering about giving tax credits to stimulate alternative energy development, and Bush has promised to veto any bill that takes tax credits away from his buddies in Big Oil to pay for that alternative energy development. Still think Bush is on the side of the average person?
Trust me, if we had vehicles that ran on hydrogen or celluosic ethanol, or biodiesel, we wouldn’t be at war, we wouldn’t be in massive national debt, and we wouldn’t be paying $4 for gas. Time to make it so that Big Oil and the Saudis aren’t the only game in town.
Ask yourself what your elected officials are doing to stimulate alternative energy at the federal, state, and local levels. Right now, we buy from what is essentially a monopoly, and they have absolutely no incentive to compete on prices. Shall we give them some competition, or should we just give people a couple of bucks for a few weeks and continue on down the same path?
We have been talking about this for years. we have been talking about drilling in Alaska for more than 10 years. If we stop talking and start doing then something would happen.
If we started to drill in Alaska 10 years ago we would not have these issues today.
In the long run, we should look into alternative energy, but we must take action on things today, not study it, have forums on it, research it. The time to act is NOW. It is nice to see a candidate like William Gouldman, Senator Joseph Bruno and Assemblyman James Tedisco all coming out and being proactive to change the status quo.
We need change NOW not some time in the future.
Friedman has cake on his face on this one. He had been railing for quite some time for an enormous INCREASE in gasoline taxes. Were we to have followed his advice, we’d be paying $7 or more per gallon by now. The fat cats couldn’t care less about the price, but the other 95% of us are drowning. What we need quickly, in addition to searching for intelligent alternate energy is to get off our high-horse and start drilling and refining our own oil. We’re financing our enemies more and more each day we dawdle. It’s a travesty that we didn’t do this decades ago. It’s reminiscent of Katrina.
the only gas relief we need from republicans is an end to their bellicose, gaseous and ridiculous rhetoric. starting with the dummy in the white house calling for congress to act to correct ever failure that he has caused over the last eight years as if it was their fault. the republicans should shut up. their failed policies have resulted in the total mess this country is in today.
OK, speaking of drilling and refining our own oil- Ask yourself why ExxonMobil has almost nothing budgeted towards increasing refinery capacity, or building new refineries.
Check this out from 2006, when the House still had a GOP majority…
republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/108/Letters/05032006_1873.htm
So, ExxonMobil budgeted $3.3B towards refinery and other infrastructure over a 5 year period, at a time when they were reporting profits of $110B a year. Around 40% of those profits went into stock buybacks, which boosts the stock price and dividends.
Hey, maybe if we were paying $7 a gallon, we wouldn’t be 20 years behind the Europeans in energy efficiency and dependence on oil. Maybe, too, the economy wouldn’t be tanking, and we’d actually be able to AFFORD $7/gal gas?
Some of the comments on here are as amusing as Friedman is. Friedman has long been way out on the left wing.
He was on radio this a.m. cheering for electric cars. He said all you’d have to do is plug in the battery for re-charging after you drive 25 miles. Gee, that’s swell. And what does he propose for all the city dwellers and others who don’t have private garages? Long cords?
More sensible. 1. Drill offshore. 2. Drill in Alaska. 3. Eliminate all those different grades of gas for different regions. 4. Scrap the use of ethanol and other bio-fuels.