Agreed
Thursday, May 14, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Eschaton…
Federal Gas Tax Cut
It’s always on the table when gas prices rise, which I suspect leads to people thinking that it’s a significant amount when it’s only 18.5 cents/gallon.
It’s an action which will make people more mad, because it’s inevitably swamped by the actual price increase. You promised help! You said you’d cut the tax but gas is still 5 bucks a gallon!
Discuss.
- Occasionally Moderated - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 8:55 am:
Can someone refresh me or provide a link to when Illinois did this and can we expect similar national effect.
- thingamajaig - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 8:56 am:
That’s how it is with all the insignificant taxes. It’s just to generate a talking point. Take, for example, the elimination of the state’s whopping 1 percent grocery tax. Relief for working families…. not! Even worse, since cities and villages retain power to levy a new grocery tax
- hisgirlfriday - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:03 am:
2000.
Here’s a JCAR report
https://cgfa.ilga.gov/Upload/GasTaxSuspension.PDF
I feel like at some point during that gas tax holiday I paid just under $1 a gallon (likely for the last time in my lifetime)
- Demoralized - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:15 am:
People think prices will go down penny for penny in the amount of the tax. It’s like people thinking that if Illinois suspended it’s gas tax prices would go down 50 cents a gallon. That won’t happen. Not even close. There will be some other reason that “causes” gas prices to remain higher. Some other thing will happen around the world or gas stations will simply pocket the extra money.
- City Zen - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:22 am:
Another example of where the beneficiary (govt) of a tax gets to measure the benefits in the aggregate while dismissing the cost at the individual level as trivial. The problem is the individual is bombarded by dozens of these taxes where, if each were looked at in the aggregate and were reduced in as equally a trivially manner, would amount to a substantial savings to the individual. But that never happens.
- PolOp - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:26 am:
This sounds an awful like what will happen with the property tax relief gimmick in the House’s megaproject legislation.
“You said this was the biggest property tax relief in Illinois history, but my taxes still went up!”
- WhiteHat76 - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:30 am:
To City’s point - it’s all death by 1,000 cuts. When dollars count, saving $10 a week on gas could be monumental for some folks. And that’s just the federal tax.
Personally, a suspension of the State gas tax in conjunction with the federal suspension would yield my family about $125 of savings in a month of driving.
- StarLineChicago - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:33 am:
It’s also lose-lose because not only do consumers generally not notice it, but it blows massive holes in already-thin transportation budgets.
- Huh? - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:33 am:
Gas tax holidays are so stupid only an idiot could think of it.
A federal gas tax holiday will further exacerbate the insolvency problems of the Highway Trust Fund. The Highway Trust Fund pays for a significant portion of highway construction project through the Surface Transportation Program block grants thst are distributed to each State.
- Think Again - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:39 am:
=18.5 cents/gallon=
Sort of silly to say that it doesn’t matter - local stations are always fighting to be the lowest - and folks will go out of their way to save 5 cents a gallon - so if the administration and congress can lower gas prices by 18.5 cents per gallon, it is a big deal
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:54 am:
- Another example of where the beneficiary (govt) of a tax gets to measure the benefits in the aggregate while dismissing the cost at the individual level as trivial. -
What are you talking about? The federal government is pretending this would be significant and a blogger is pointing out it is actually trivial.
- Occasionally Moderated - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 9:56 am:
Thank you -hisgirlfriday
- JS Mill - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:00 am:
@Demoralized +1
- Tommydanger - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:12 am:
The tax serves a particular purpose, road construction,maintenance and is not index to the price of a gallon of gas. Demoralized is correct in stating that there’s no guarantee that the savings would be passed on the consumers in any amount let alone the full amount of the tax abatement. It also just creates residual problems in reducing monies available to rebuild and maintain our roadways.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:15 am:
Hey, I have this great idea, everyone. What if we just didn’t pay into the pensions this year? That’d save us a lot of money.
Next we can get some free money for building things through TIF districts.
/snark (though not really because this is what we did for years, and years and years, and look how that worked out)
- ChicagoBars - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:18 am:
==Starline===
Pretty sure, not positive that I recall during NITA / transit reform debate it was okay to add NE Illinois public transit capital projects to the gas tax funded list because thatfund is building up faster than they can deploy road infrastructure projects funded by it?
https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiMjVlOWU4YjQtYzNjZC
00M2EyLTk5NjEtNWJmNjg4OGQ1O
GIxIiwidCI6IjZiMjIwODlmLThlYmEtNDY
zYy04NGY1LTMxNzEyMTBmOTAwNSJ9
- Amurica - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:24 am:
If we hadn’t gone all in on cars and developed a train infrastructure for travel, it would be a lot better.
- Demoralized - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:24 am:
==would yield my family about $125 of savings in a month==
You’re making the mistaken assumption that the price of gas would go down in an equal amount. It won’t. And anyone who thinks it will is deceiving themself.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:34 am:
I totally agree with the sentiment expressed. The suspension of the federal gas tax will barely be felt by ordinary people, especially if the war turns hot again. Which it could. It still might happen though, because the most successful thing politicians do is theater.
- Abe - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 11:00 am:
With supply and demand such that it is, releiving the gas tax will likely lead to price increases — meaining its mostly a windfall for producers, while customers pay the same price and public budgets lose revenue
https://bsky.app/profile/rooseveltinstitute.org/post/3mlo5lrg5jk2k
- FearTheTree - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 11:04 am:
“Gas tax holidays are so stupid only an idiot could think of it.”
So is having lawmakers granting a family with a 10B dollar sports team billions of dollars in property tax relief.
Yet here we are.
- Wow - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 11:19 am:
If only there was a way to test Demoralized amazing theory all the regular suspects here are quick to agree with. If only we could see if gas taxes are even “barely” felt by consumers. Maybe I’ll think of one on my way to Missouri to buy gas this afternoon.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 11:43 am:
===$125 of savings in a month of driving===
Someone’s already suggested the economics behind how reducing the taxes would not result in an exact reduction in what you pay at the pump, but what do you think will happen when all of the folks who that tax pays get laid off? What do you think will happen when none of the repairs to the roads that tax pays for happens?
The whole point of the tax on gasoline is that it is supposed to pay for the infrastructure that you are using. The more you drive, the more you use it, the more you pay for it.
Now you don’t want to pay for the infrastructure that your family seems to be using a lot?
Which other people do you propose should pay for this infrastructure? Or would you like to just see it decay?
Whose problem do you want to make it so that you could theoretically (but not in practice) save about $125 bucks a month as a family?
Trump started a war without just cause and he wants to make it Illinois’ problem. Why is this Illinois’ problem?
Pay for the roads you use.
God love Illinois and the people who live here who spent decades thinking they didn’t have to pay for the government they were getting and sing praises of the people you elected who supported that fantasy.
- JS Mill - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 11:55 am:
=If only there was a way to test Demoralized amazing theory=
You mean like when Illinois suspended the tax in 2000 and prices didn’t go down? Like that?
= Maybe I’ll think of one on my way to Missouri to buy gas this afternoon.=
I wonder how much you spend to “save”? Also, if Mizzou is so great why don’t you live/work there?
- Blue Dog - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 12:16 pm:
look at the bright side. this will give rivian a boost.
- Demoralized - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 12:44 pm:
==If only there was a way to test Demoralized amazing theory==
This is literally the point of the entire post. I simply agree with the post.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 1:15 pm:
“Maybe I’ll think of one on my way to Missouri to buy gas this afternoon.”
Last Thursday Cape Girardeau was thirty cents cheaper than Anna, so, go nuts.
Also, enjoy it now. After their legislature ups the sales tax to make up the difference of no income tax (roughly two-thirds of their GRF) combined sales tax for our neighbors to the west will be anywhere from 15 to 20 percent higher.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 1:22 pm:
===Last Thursday Cape Girardeau was thirty cents cheaper than Anna, so, go nuts.===
I really do wonder if folks actually take a moment to break down the additional mileage and the resulting wear and tear on their vehicle to determine whether or not they’re really saving any money, or more importantly, saving enough money to make it worth it.
- Didgitydan - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 1:28 pm:
Up until this all started Missouri gas was $.30 to $.40 a gallon cheaper than Illinois, but for some reason since the war there is now a $.80 gallon difference. Not sure as to why, any clue?
- Brave New World - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 2:06 pm:
I guess we all agree now that gas taxes do impact the consumer and price at the pump? We’ve moved on to wear and tear of our cars driving to lower taxes?
- Rich Miller - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 2:07 pm:
===We’ve moved on===
Engage with the lone commenter who claimed that instead of broad-brushing everyone here.
Final warning.
- BE - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 2:27 pm:
So with a combined effort, the fed GOP and ILGOP with removing both gas taxes would save us a whole 25cents? Maybe we can all buy gumballs to fix the potholes, then.
This is not a good time for needing to replace my hybrid with a new-to-me one. In my area, either no one is getting rid of theirs, the milage is too high on it/more than 15 years old or the price is out of my budget.
- Benjamin - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 2:50 pm:
@ChicagoBars: I can’t speak to the state transportation funds, but the federal Highway Trust Fund has paid out more than gas taxes have brought in every year since 2008, to the cumulative tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Arguably, not only should the tax not be suspended, it should be increased.
- Demoralized - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 2:51 pm:
==I guess we all agree now that gas taxes do impact the consumer and price at the pump?==
Literally nobody said that taxes don’t affect the price at the pump. That’s just a dumb statement.
- NorthSideNoMore - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 7:18 pm:
Gas Sales tax must be soaring?
- From DaZoo - Thursday, May 14, 26 @ 10:11 pm:
As others have said, the _Federal_ Highway Trust Fund has been short revenue for 20+ years. It’s needed transfers from the General Fund to pay for various transportation related programs. It would be politically problematic to have a federal gas tax holiday now and then come September (when the next 5-year transportation funding bill is due) to discuss doubling the gas tax.