Gas tax suspension pushed again in Mass.

State revenues soar

State revenues continued to soar above projections in March, prompting one conservative group to again call for the suspension of the gas tax.

“March tax collections blew past their benchmark, the state has more money than they know what to do with, and yet for Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, it’s still not enough,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

Preliminary revenue collections for March totaled $3.858 billion — $802 million more than was collected in March of last year. That’s 26.2% above March 2021 actual collections, according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Last month’s totals sat 12.5% above the benchmark.

The increases were due to tax revenues nearly across the board, including increases in withholding, non-withholding, sales and use tax, and corporate and business tax.

Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said that March’s revenues, like collections for January and February, were influenced by a change in state law affecting taxes for passthrough entities, or businesses that pass all income on to owners and investors.

Craney noted that despite this trend of high revenues, the Massachusetts House rejected proposals to suspend the gas tax without a roll call vote. The state Senate rejected the idea 11-29. He expressed concern that “Massachusetts middleclass businesses will be fleeing the state and relocating to New Hampshire and states like Florida.”

The Republican-led proposal would have saved Bay Staters $3 to $4 at the pump during this period of unusually high gas prices, and would have followed states like Georgia, Maryland and neighboring Connecticut in doing so.

Democrats, meanwhile, argued that suspending the gas tax is a political “gimmick” that would have strained future resources dedicated to transportation projects, and could also negatively impact the state’s bond rating, as the Herald has previously reported.

State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, noted last month that gas prices have already begun to fall.

“There is no guarantee that you would see one penny of reduction at the gas pump,” he said. “Do you all really trust the big oil companies as we see that they are making record profits over the last month throughout the course of this war?”