West Virginia Democrats backing special session to suspend gas tax

(The Center Square) – Amid the high gas prices in West Virginia, state Democratic lawmakers are asking Gov. Jim Justice to call a special session so they can introduce legislation that would temporarily reduce the prices by suspending the gas tax for 30 days.

“I think the time is now to do something,” Del. Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, said in a news conference.

The average price of a gallon of gas in West Virginia is slightly less than $4.09, according to a AAA compilation of data. Although this is about 15 cents lower than the national average, it’s still 76 cents higher than it was a month ago and $1.31 higher than it was one year ago today.

West Virginians pay a 35.7-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline and Democratic lawmakers are arguing that a 30-day suspension would immediately lower prices for consumers. The plan would cost the state about $35 million toward the road fund, but those losses would be offset with money from the state’s surplus. The state’s surplus currently sits around $600 million.

Last week, Democratic lawmakers asked Justice to suspend the gas tax. He responded he had no executive authority to suspend the tax and accused the Democrats of a “political stunt,” arguing they could have introduced legislation when the General Assembly was in session. Later, the governor said he would support a gas tax suspension if lawmakers want a special session, but has not yet responded to the Democratic request.

“If this comes through the legislature and the legislature wants to be called back into special session, I’ll do it tomorrow,” Justice said. “And if the legislature is called back into special session, and they want to do it, I’m all in.”

Democratic lawmakers responded to the governor’s accusation, calling it “extremely partisan,” and noted that former Gov. Joe Manchin temporarily suspended the gas tax during Hurricane Katrina. Nevertheless, they have opted to go the legislative route.

“Last week, we proposed a pause in the state gas tax in response to the extremely high prices at the pump right now,” Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, said in a news conference. Since then, Gov. Justice and Republicans in the state House and the state have responded, essentially saying, ‘you know, we’d like to do that, but we can’t do that.’ Well, we want to say, ‘yes, we can do that. …We have surplus funds immediately available to pay the road fund in full to cover the cost of this.”

Both Maryland and Georgia have suspended their gasoline taxes amid the high prices. Similar plans are being debated in Virginia and Florida.

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