Here’s Why Getting Rid Of Gas Taxes Might Not Lower Prices After All

Over the last month, the average price of gas has shot up by more than a dollar a gallon, making driving anywhere far more expensive than it was before Trump started wasting billions of dollars fighting a confusing war with Iran. That’s bad news for anyone on a budget, especially those living on tight budgets, so Georgia responded by suspending its gas tax for 60 days. On a gallon of regular, that would save drivers about $0.33. Great idea, right? Not so fast. As Atlanta’s WSB-TV reports, many gas station owners would much rather keep prices artificially high. 

From a dollars and cents perspective, it makes sense. If they don’t lower their prices, they keep that $0.33 every time someone buys a gallon of gas, and that adds up fast, even if we’re only talking about 100,000 gallons a month. From the state’s perspective, however, that’s not fair, and those owners are bad for doing capitalism correctly. Georgia’s residents aren’t happy, either, calling in at least 25 complaints over 12 days and drawing the attention of Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr.

“We commend Governor Kemp and our partners in the legislature for passing this critical measure to lower costs at the pump,” Carr said in a statement. “Any business that purposefully fails to comply with the law will be investigated immediately, and we will not hesitate to prosecute if warranted. Now is not the time to play games at the expense of Georgia consumers.”

Carr also told WSB-TV, “These stations must pass on those savings onto the consumers,” but actually forcing gas station owners to lower their prices could prove complicated. Expensive gas doesn’t constitute a natural disaster, which would come with its own legal restrictions, and Carr told WSB-TV that he didn’t believe the state’s price-gouging laws would apply, either. Instead, he plans to use Georgia’s Fair Business Practices Act.

“Let us know and we will investigate. It would be a violation of the ‘Fair Business Practices Act’ and each case is different, number of violations, severity of the violation…but we will look into this,” Carr told WSB-TV. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a good explanation of whether or not there’s a legal difference between continuing to “collect” the tax and simply raising the price to account for the $0.33 the state no longer makes them pay. 

It was, of course, entirely predictable that business owners would choose making more money over not making more money, but the bigger question is what cuts the state will have to make as a result. Suspending the gas tax for 60 days will reportedly cost the state about $400 million, which means Georgia’s transportation budget now has a near-half-billion-dollar hole in it. Which roads won’t get resurfaced? Which potholes will go unpatched? Which road signs won’t get replaced? Cheaper gas is nice, but is it really worth saving a few dollars if a pothole blows out your tire and cracks a wheel?