Silver State Times

In response to an idea to give drivers in Nevada a gas tax holiday, experts are coming out against the idea, saying it would be a mistake for the future of the state and the climate.

"A gas tax holiday would exacerbate inflationary pressures and slow a needed transition to more energy-efficient and climate-friendly technologies, while cutting off a key source of infrastructure funding," Maya MacGuineas said in a recent opinion piece that appeared in The Hill. "It’s a way for politicians to pretend they are making the situation better, when in fact they are making it worse."

MacGuineas is president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

In the piece, MacGuineas emphasized the dangers of a federal gas tax suspension, a quick fix for high pump prices proposed by many Democratic policymakers. Among risk factors, she noted that a gas tax holiday would worsen the climate crisis and delay the development and adoption of cleaner technologies.

She also argued that the proposal would do little to address the underlying issues of high gas prices. She urged lawmakers to consider more sustainable solutions that would address both the immediate problem of high gas prices and the longer-term challenge of climate change.

The federal gas tax is a crucial source of funding for the nation's highway and transit systems, enabling the country to maintain and improve its infrastructure and keep roads, bridges and transit networks safe and reliable. Unfortunately, this vital source of funding is now under threat due to strained federal budgets and growing calls to cut taxes at all costs. As an op-ed in The New York Times argues that eliminating the gas tax would have dire consequences for the nation’s economy and its ability to invest in critical infrastructure projects.

Currently, federal fuel tax rates are $0.184 per gallon for gasoline and $0.244 per gallon for diesel. In Nevada, the state gas tax is $0.23 per gallon, according to the IGEN Blog.

In early February, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) joined other democratic senators in introducing legislation to reduce prices at the pump. The Gas Prices Relief Act would suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax until Jan. 1, 2023, according to Rosen's website.

"Rather than countering the highest inflation rates seen in decades, suspending the gas tax in an overstimulated economy would boost inflation in 2023, as surging demand coincides with re-imposition of the tax," MacGuineas said in her column. "Remember, it was excessive tax cuts and spending that helped get us into this inflation mess; they aren’t going to get us out of it."