by Tom Davies
Indiana Capital Chronicle
Indiana’s gasoline tax holiday will continue for at least 30 more days.
Gov. Mike Braun issued a new executive order last Wednesday suspending the state’s gas taxes totaling 58.9 cents a gallon that were set to be reimposed this past Friday. The new suspension continues through Sept. 5.
The governor said last month he didn’t have the power to continue the tax break without the Legislature coming into special session and authorizing another extension.
But Braun said Wednesday he was declaring a new emergency under the state’s energy emergency law. This time he is citing disruptions to global oil shipping lanes from the four-year-old Russian invasion of Ukraine rather than the U.S. war with Iran. He also pointed to troubles the Canadian wildfires have caused in the Alberta Oil Sands Region.
The state’s gasoline taxes include an excise tax of 37 cents per gallon (which increased by one cent as of July 1 under state law) and the gasoline use tax— effectively the state 7% sales tax collected on gasoline that was to be 21.9 cents a gallon during August.
Indiana’s average gasoline price Wednesday of $3.57 per gallon for regular gas. The statewide Indiana average was $2.68 in late February before the Iran war started.
The governor first partially suspended the gas taxes by executive order on April 8 following the spike in worldwide oil prices after President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran in February.
Braun fully suspended the taxes in May, but the state’s energy emergency law limits a governor’s action to a 120-day maximum without legislative approval.
Braun said he had an agreement with legislative leaders to direct money from the state’s growing surplus to “replenish lost revenue” from the gas tax that would have gone toward the state highway department and local governments for road projects.
Democratic legislators said they welcomed the cheaper gas prices from the tax break, but scoffed at Braun’s justification in citing the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Canadian wildfires.
Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said that drivers would welcome “the cheap gas, but they won’t be happy when we have to raise the gas taxes to cover the dollars that we’re giving up. That’s the problem.”
DeLaney said the Republican plan for shifting money from the state’s general fund surplus to replace the gas tax revenue is a major policy shift as road funding has come from those driving on the roads.
