The Tax Hike Nobody Voted For

Voters should remember the Democrats gutless move when going to the polls this November

Once again, your gas tax is going up in Maryland:

Maryland motorists will face an increase in the state gas tax rate starting in next month, but whether they notice the change is another thing entirely.

New tax rates released Monday by the Office of the Comptroller set the new tax rate on gasoline at 46.6 cents per gallon, a net increase of six-tenths of a penny more than this year’s rate, and the first increase after two year of slight declines. The tax is in addition to the federal tax on gas of 18.4 cents a gallon.

Robert Rehrmann, the director of the Board of Revenue Estimates, said the overall increase this year was not driven by the war with Iran.

“Although Middle East geopolitical shocks triggered a spike in gasoline prices beginning in early March, the average price over the full 12-month determination period was lower than the prior year,” Rehrmann wrote in his report.

Did anybody vote to increase this tax? Of course not. But that’s because back in 2013, the Maryland General Assembly voted to index the gas tax to the rate of inflation. Thanks to runaway inflation during the 2020’s, the gas tax is going up yet again on July 1st.

Is it any wonder why Maryland’s gas tax has more than doubled in the past thirteen years, when Maryland’s Legislative Democrats have absolved themselves of the need to vote to increase it?

As I wrote in 2022, In a time of runaway inflation, we will continue to see middle-class Marylanders forced to pay more at the pump. With gas prices as volatile as ever due to inflation and Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran disrupting the flow of crude from the Strait of Hormuz, Marylanders can expect to pay even more in real taxes at the pump as the summer progresses.

It’s something voters should remember when going to the polls this November…..