Colorado will not move forward with President Joe Biden’s request for states to suspend gas taxes.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis praised Biden’s call to urge Congress for a three-month federal gas tax suspension but did not endorse the same move at the state level. Polis is open to helping people save money “so long as the state legislature didn’t take the money from needed road repairs,” a Polis spokesperson told Axios.
The state expects to collect $662.9 million in gas taxes for the fiscal year that starts July 1, and a three-month gas tax holiday would reduce state revenues by an estimated $165.7 million. While the state tax revenue is mostly sent to the state and local governments to fund transportation projects, some of it is given to the Highway Patrol and the state Department of Public Safety, according to Colorado’s Motor Tax Fuel Revenue.
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State Sen. Chris Hansen, a legislative budget writer, has also argued against suspending Colorado’s gas tax, saying it “would be kind of a pointless shell game.” A reduction in gas tax collections would mean smaller refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights due to the state’s surplus revenue.
The state’s gas tax is $0.22 per gallon, close to the $0.18 gasoline tax on the federal level.
The current average price per gallon of gas in Colorado is $4.91, according to AAA.
Polis’s administration “is focused on cutting costs and saving people money” and would “love to see the Congress finally suspend the federal gas tax to save people money,” Polis said Wednesday. In March, two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, he signed a letter with other governors from across the United States asking Congress to suspend the federal gas tax.
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Biden called for a pause in the federal gasoline tax on Wednesday for the three months ending in September amid record-high prices at the pump, though experts claim the pause is unlikely to provide much relief.
House Republicans gathered this week for an off-site hearing to propose solutions to the country’s inflation and rising gas prices. The solutions pitched ranged from dramatically cutting taxes and government spending, enacting work requirements for social welfare programs, and abolishing “renewable energy mandates” that restrict the production of oil and other fossil fuels.
