County engineer says tax holiday affects budget
Auglaize County Engineer Andrew Baumer doesn’t want Ohio to be a case study as U.S. President Joe Biden calls for gas tax holidays and suspensions.
Baumer said for the two states that have suspended their state gas tax, it hasn’t made much of a difference.
Baumer explained New Jersey reduced its gas tax by 8 cents and gas prices actually went up because crude oil prices increased.
Georgia suspended its gas tax and their gas prices still increased 10 cents.
“There’s two case studies that show even when the gas tax is suspended there is not a direct correlation to savings to the consumer,” Baumer said.
“All it does is just dig the infrastructure hole even deeper. Somewhere down the line those aren’t getting passed down to the consumer, somebody else is making that money, where it could be going to infrastructure projects.”
Baumer recalled the historic investment in infrastructure that is mostly financed through the gas tax.
“The avenue to fund all of that is backed by the gas tax,” Baumer said. “Now we are going to take away the funding source for that bill. It just seems like you take two steps forward and one step back.”
Baumer realizes high prices are a hindrance to residents
“Obviously no one wants to pay $5 for a gallon of gas, but there are so many other factors in that gallon of gas than the gas tax,” Baumer said, citing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He explained that Russia is a major oil exporter and the conflict caused price disruptions world wide.
In 2021, Motor Vehicle Gas Tax dollars made up $985,000 of the county engineer’s budget; losing that money would mean losing county paving and bridge projects.
The Ohio Department of Transportation is currently exploring a variety of funding sources for infrastructure for the long term as more people switch to electric vehicles but are still a long way away from any conclusions.