By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – The governor’s concern about the price of gasoline represents a shift since nine months ago.
While gas cost more than three dollars a gallon in May 2021, Gov. JB Pritzker said what was most important was to fix and build roads and bridges, paid for by a doubling of the state’s share of the gas tax – then 19 cents – and then tying it to inflation. When a reporter pressed Pritzker on drivers’ distaste for $3 gas, the governor responded, “Gas prices have fluctuated significantly over the last two years. They’ve been below $2 at one point, and where gas prices go is very much dependent on public markets.”
Now a freeze on the gas tax is a linchpin of the governor’s helping-families agenda, unveiled in the Feb. 2 State of the State message. What’s changed?
“Seven percent inflation, that’s what’s changed!” Pritzker said at a Feb. 8 appearance in Springfield. “If we can find ways – property taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes – to alleviate the pain that families are experiencing, we ought to be doing that, and the only reason we can do that is because we have a surplus, because we have been managing our budget well.”
The gas stations and convenience stores of Illinois are not impressed.
Cynical enough to dismiss Pritzker’s plan as an election-year stunt, Illinois Fuel and Retail Association CEO Josh Sharp said a meaningful step would be to address a tax separate from the motor fuel tax: the sales tax on gasoline, which Sharp points out is imposed by only six states.
Including Illinois.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
