Even more gas tax hikes eyed
Rep proposes additional future increases
State lawmakers set to vote on gas tax hikes Wednesday will be asked to pump up the fees even higher in the years to come.
As the Herald reported last week, House Speaker Robert DeLeo is calling for a 5 cent gas tax increase, bringing it up to 29 cents per gallon, and a 9 cent increase on diesel fuel to 33 cents per gallon.
One amendment, filed by Brookline Democrat Rep. Tommy Vitolo and backed by the coalition Transportation for Massachusetts, would supplement the speaker’s proposed fuel tax increases with additional future hikes.
Under Vitolo’s amendment, both the gas tax and diesel tax would each increase another 5 cents in 2022 and a third 5-cent increase in 2024 until they reach 39 cents per gallon and 43 cents per gallon, respectively. The amendment also increases the Earned Income Tax Credit to offset the impact of gas tax increases on low-income workers.
Other amendments would subject Suffolk and Middlesex Counties to a “higher tier” — without specifying numbers — of gas taxes, or would allow cities and towns to impose an additional 3-cent excise tax on fuel sales to retail dealers.
In dozens of amendments, rank-and-file Democrats called for expanding the gasoline and diesel tax increases proposed by leaders, expanding road tolls to the state’s borders and funding free public transportation. Republicans will seek to scrap tax hikes or at least sunset them once a potential income surtax takes effect.
The House will begin the process by taking up a multipronged tax bill (H 4508) on Wednesday. The legislation, unveiled by DeLeo and his top deputies last week, seeks to raise $522 million to $612 million per year through a 5-cent gasoline tax increase, a 9-cent diesel tax increase, a tiered increase to the corporate minimum excise tax, higher fees on ride-hailing services, and application of the state sales tax to vehicle purchases by rental car companies.
Republican lawmakers are poised to challenge the tax hikes sought by the Democrats who wield a supermajority. Gov. Charlie Baker has threatened to veto a gas tax increase in the past, and last week outlined his opposition to that proposal and the corporate minimum increase.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones filed amendments lessening the ridehailing fee increases on shared and nonluxury trips and repealing the rental car sales tax application, while Rep. Elizabeth Poirier will seek elimination of the corporate minimum tax expansion. Jones criticized Democrats for pushing tax increases now while also continuing their pursuit of a 4% surtax on household income above $1 million. Supporters say the proposal, which needs approval from both branches in the next lawmaking session before it can go before voters as early as 2022, could raise up to $2 billion per year for education and transportation.
Under an amendment Jones filed to the transportation revenue bill, the corporate, fuel and rental car taxes — together accounting for about $400 million in revenue — would all be repealed if the so-called “millionaires tax” is implemented.
“(The bill) has got to be considered in the context of: we’re going to raise taxes, we have the largest rainy day fund we’ve ever had, we just had a $1 billion surplus last year, they’re pushing a $2 billion tax increase — what are they doing this for?” Jones said last week.
Some lawmakers hope to see the bill take a clearer approach to how the roughly half-billion dollars in new revenue is spent.