House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman abandons his efforts to raise the federal gas tax.

WASHINGTON – According to an article published by Congress Daily AM House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young has "all but acknowledged that he will be unable to muster enough support to raise the federal gas tax." Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the nations leading taxpayer advocacy group, strongly opposed the Chairman and has consistently reiterated the taxpayers\’ opposition to any increase in the federal motor fuels excise tax, or gas tax.

"Chairman Young\’s plan to raise motor fuels excise tax by 5.4 cents and indexing the tax to inflation represented a tax increase ," said Grover Norquist, President of ATR. "However, the gasoline tax already to high, is not collected efficiently or effectively, and is used to fund several projects outside of the responsibility of the federal government ."

According to the Federal Highway Administration, the current federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and state gas taxes average just over 22 cents. Based on this, American taxpayers are currently paying more than $50 billion annually in taxes on gasoline. This means that the average family\’s annual gas tax burden is $660, and every penny increase in the gas tax will raise that family\’s annual tax bill by $25.

If the Chairman Young\’s proposal to increase the gas tax by 5.4 cents had come to fruition, families would have seen their yearly tax burden increase by $135. That would have represented a total gas tax of almost $800 annually. In addition, the Chairman\’s decision to index the tax to inflation would have created an automatic tax increase that these families will be forced to pay each year.

"Chairman Young apparently has finally gotten the message that the American people do not want to pay higher gas taxes to fund the growing transportation bureaucracy," said Norquist. "Maybe now that the Chairman has discarded his plans to raise the gas tax, he will look at new ways of paying for roads and more efficient highway construction methods."