Ohio lawmakers propose suspending the state’s gas tax after Trump suggested doing the same on the federal level
Ohio lawmakers recently suggested temporarily suspending the state’s gas tax after President Donald Trump offered the same idea earlier, except at the federal level.
The current federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel, according to the Statehouse News Bureau.
House Bill 850, which is sponsored by state Reps. Ty Matthews, R-Findlay, and Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, and is currently referred to the state House Finance Committee, would suspend half of the state’s gas tax for three months, thus cutting the tax on gasoline from 38.5 cents per gallon to 19.25 cents and from 47 cents per gallon to 23.5 cents for diesel, the news source reported.
However, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, opposed the bill, saying that even temporarily suspending the state’s gas tax would result in less money being spent on things like road construction, infrastructure projects, and the State Highway Patrol, according to the Statehouse report.
“I haven’t really talked to our caucus about that,” Huffman told the news source. “If we do consider doing that, I think there needs to be a trigger that is the price of gasoline drops below a certain level, then the tax goes back in.”
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also opposed the idea of suspending the tax, saying that “it would be a very grave disservice to the people of the state of Ohio,” the news source said.
“I think Ohioans would feel the pain of that in the months ahead as our roads deteriorate,” DeWine said last week. “No Ohioan wants to pay any tax on our roads. But the truth is, we like to have good roads, and we like to be able to drive.
The Bureau reported that DeWine had proposed increasing the state’s gas tax by 18 cents in 2019, saying the money was needed as the Ohio Department of Transportation faced a $1.5 billion budget gap. DeWine and the state lawmakers compromised on the issue by raising the gas tax by 10.5 cents.
Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News, Nancy Cordes, wrote on X on Monday that Trump told her in a phone interview that he wants to “pause the 18-cent federal gas tax ‘for a period of time.’”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Trump said. “Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.”
U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, responded to Cordes’s post by writing on X that she will also introduce “a bill in the House to suspend the federal gas tax in light of Trump’s recent remarks.”
“American families need this relief on gas prices. My office will be working directly with President Trump to ensure we deliver this win for the American people,” she wrote in a Monday post to X.
