Connecticut motorists should start seeing relief at the pump in early April with the General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelming approving a three-month suspension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax.
Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to sign the measure, which calls for a gas tax holiday from April 1 to June 30. The average cost of a gallon of gas Wednesday in Connecticut was $4.32, according to AAA. A motorist filling up a 15-gallon tank — the average size on most cars — will save $3.75. That amounts to $45 over the three-month suspension for someone who fills up their tank weekly.
Connecticut is just the third state to pass relief from high gas prices, which had been rising and then hit record highs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More than a dozen states are contemplating suspending their state gas taxes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. California is one of few states proposing a gas rebate for residents.
Georgia and Maryland became the first states to act on rising prices at the pump with their Republican governors passing the measures on the same day, March 18. Georgia suspended its 28.7-cents-per-gallon state gas tax through May 31, and Maryland’s suspension of its 36-cents-per-gallon tax is effective through April 16.
Many Northeast states are considering the move. Senate Democrats in New York, which has some of the highest gas prices in the Northeast, are pushing to suspend the state’s 48-cents-per-gallon tax for eight months from May 1 through Dec. 31. Rhode Island lawmakers are considering doing away with the state’s 32-cents-per-gallon tax through the end of the year. While in New Jersey, lawmakers are debating lowering the state gas tax from 42.4 cents to 14.5 cents for 60 days.
Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday also approved free bus service, starting in early April through June 30 and will exempt clothes and shoes under $100 from the state’s 6.35 percent sales tax from April 10-16, which coincides with spring break for many school districts when parents tend to take their kids shopping.
The total package will cost the state about $100 million.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, dismissed the idea that the gas tax holiday is an election year gimmick given the savings to consumers are minimal.
“If this is all we were doing, you could argue its gimmicky,” Ritter said, adding it’s part of a larger relief package Democrats are looking to pass before the legislative session adjourns on May 4.
“This is the opening salvo in what we believe will be a tax reduction budget,” Ritter said.
The package received bipartisan support with little debate in the state House and Senate Wednesday. Some Republicans worried about relief being delayed in rural parts of the state, which might take longer to go through their current inventory of gas. They also raised the issue of whether retailers that just bought tanks of gas should be able to retroactively receive the tax relief.
Rep. Sean Scanlan, D-Guilford, co-chair of the Finance Committee, said lawmakers timed the gas tax holiday to start April 1 to account for the three to five days it usually takes retailers to go through their supply.