GOSHEN —The hot political cause of the moment cruised into a local Exxon this morning as three Assembly Republicans stopped by to demand the state lift its 32-cent-a-gallon set of gas taxes for the summer – or longer.
The event was staged as part of a statewide campaign by the minority-party Assembly GOP to pressure Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver into supporting the tax suspension, as the Republican-led Senate has done.
With gas prices now in the $4-a-gallon range, Assembly members Annie Rabbitt, Tom Kirwan and Nancy Calhoun argued that lifting the three gas taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day would offer drivers needed relief and salvage what might otherwise be a sluggish tourism season.
“This is a crisis,” said Rabbitt, R-Greenwood Lake. “This is not a luxury.”
Watching from a short distance away as their pickup chugged down $105 worth of gas were Paul Eversley and Joe Johnson, both Goshen residents who work for the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
Eversley cast a somewhat jaundiced eye at the cause being trumpeted nearby.
“Don’t get me wrong – I would love it personally,” he said. “But it’s a short-term fix.”
What truly enraged him and Johnson was not the rising gas price itself but the thought that oil executives are slurping up the proceeds while consumers get squeezed at the pumps.
“We need to take a look at the profits those oil companies are making,” Eversley said. “Because they’re making money off our backs.”
Johnson added: “To me, it’s almost like treason.”
Kirwan, R-Newburgh, went the farthest of the three local Assembly members: He wants to eliminate state gas taxes forever, not simply for this summer. He calls it a regressive tax that “hits the poorest people the hardest.”
A permanent ban would cost the state just over $1 billion this year, he said. Asked how a state with sinking revenues and projected deficits could sacrifice that income, Kirwan suggested it cancel all the pork-barrel spending lawmakers approved in the budget last month.
“It’s not a gimmick,” he said of his proposal. “Folks up here have no choice but to drive to work.”
Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove, estimated the summer gas-tax holiday would cost the state about $500 million. She and Rabbitt also implied that eliminating wasteful spending could compensate the state for the lost revenue.
cmckenna@th-record.com
