October 20, 2021
From Senator O’Mara: State Senator Tom O’Mara (R, Big Flats)joined other members of the Senate Republican Conference in calling for the immediate suspension of the state’s gas tax, one of the nation’s highest, and to continue voicing opposition to legislation under consideration by the state Legislature’s Democrat majorities that could raise the gas tax by 55 cents and increase home heating costs by upwards of 25%.
The Senate GOP action comes as gas prices continue to climb sharply across the state and when home heating costs are projected to increase by more than 20 percent this winter, even higher in some places. According to the AAA, New York’s latest average gas price is $3.46 per gallon, compared to an average of $2.25 per gallon one year ago.
“New York’s out-of-control Democrat supermajorities enacted a state budget this year raising taxes by nearly five billion dollars and they’ll just keep looking for more. It will be an unending search for more tax dollars to afford more spending and every taxpayer will pay the price at the pump, to heat homes, and in a lot of other places. The ink on the new state budget was barely dry and the Democrats were already eyeing their next tax-hike opportunities, including a potential fifty-five-cents-per-gallon gas tax to help generate revenue to implement an unsustainable, impractical climate change agenda,” said O’Mara, who also joined the Senate GOP in calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to suspend the current gas tax. “The ongoing implementation of these regressive taxes would leave lower- and middle-income families and workers, motorists, truckers, manufacturers and other industries, and seniors among the hardest hit.”
The legislation (S4264/A6967), known as the “Climate and Community Investment Act,” calls for accelerated state-level actions to achieve broad and far-reaching climate change policies. It includes a new 55-cents-per-gallon gas tax and increased taxes on heating oil, propane, and natural gas, which is estimated to increase home heating fuel costs by 26%.
New Yorkers already pay the ninth-highest gas tax in America at 46.19-cents-per-gallon, according to the Tax Foundation. If the proposed gas tax of 55 cents were added, New York would have the highest overall gas tax in America.
New York’s business tax climate has long been noted by the Tax Foundation as one of the nation’s worst.
