CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With the average price on gasoline in West Virginia hovering around $4 a gallon, House Democrats say they are ready to create relief with a gas tax suspension for the state.
“We expect the elevated cost of fuel to carry on for the next several months, so we want to be proactive in doing this,” said House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle.
The House Democratic caucus addressed reporters with the idea Wednesday. Hornbuckle said they have a plan and a bill to execute the plan, but need Governor Patrick Morrisey to call the Legislature into special session to take up the proposal. So far they haven’t had any conversations with the Morrisey Administration about the matter, but Hornbuckle said they had contacted the Governor’s office requesting a meeting on two occasions and felt confident he’d be willing to talk about it.
Previous efforts to roll back the gasoline tax have been thwarted since those taxes are tied to the state road fund. Hornbuckle said their plan addressed that contingency.
“This is unprecedented times. The cost of the gas has risen because of a war. That is a state of emergency and as we know we could access our Rainy Day Fund if we need anything to back fill our roads,” he explained.
The House Democrats’ plan use as a baseline what the average price of gasoline was during the month of February. According to Hornbuckle the average price from Feb. 1 until Feb. 28 when the war started was $2.85 to $3.00 a gallon in the state. The plan calls for a suspension of the tax for 30 days if the average price exceeds those February averages. The matter would be reevaluated every month and if the cost goes back to that February average the tax would resume. Hornbuckle said they wanted to do the monthly evaluation through the end of the calendar year.
The far right Republicans who make up the House Freedom Caucus called for similar actions only days ago. Hornbuckle was asked if they had talked with the Freedom Caucus to help craft a bi-partisan plan, but they had not.
“We appreciate the Freedom Caucus joining us and talking about this very important issue. But we want to take it a step further. We would love to work with them in a bi-partisan manner to have an actual plan. That is the important part of this, it’s not just screaming from the mountain tops, we actually have a plan that is fiscally responsible but the most important thing which is give relief to West Virginians,” he said.
Hornbuckle suggested the gas tax is about $30 to $40 Million a month which would be alleviated. He concluded with a call to action and said it didn’t matter whose idea won out, the important step was to help reduce prices for West Virginia consumers.
“As long as the people of West Virginia get some type of relief, that’s our priority. We don’t care if our proposal gets through, we don’t care if the Freedom Caucus gets something through, we don’t care,” he said.