{"id":160117,"date":"2026-04-08T04:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/160117\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:22:16","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-pitch-60-day-gas-tax-pause-would-it-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/160117\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers pitch 60-day gas tax pause. Would it help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Gas prices jumped Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a sentence that could\u2019ve been said nearly every day for the past month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re paying $4 or more to fill up your tank, you feel it,\u201d said congressional candidate Janelle Stelson outside a gas station this week. The price was $4.24 a gallon. It jumped to $4.29 less than 24 hours later, among the tamer daily spikes Pennsylvanians have experienced.<\/p>\n

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The gas tax in the state is 57 cents a gallon. State Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh\/Northampton) wants to suspend it for 60 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s about affordability, right? That\u2019s all we hear. Affordability. Affordability,\u201d Boscola said. \u201cIf it\u2019s really affordability, and you know these prices are impacting people\u2019s pocketbook, why aren\u2019t we doing something about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams\/Franklin) agreed, writing it\u2019s a moral issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing nothing while families struggle is not neutrality. It is a decision \u2014 a decision to allow hardship to deepen when relief is possible,\u201d Mastriano said.<\/p>\n

As gas prices rise, credit cards can help \u2014 but choose (and use) wisely <\/a><\/p>\n

But would suspending the gas tax work to lower prices? Maybe a little, experts said, but it\u2019s assessed on the wholesale price, so Pennsylvanians won\u2019t be able to subtract 57 cents from the price on the sign. How much tax to pass on, or not, is up to each of the 4,000 gas stations in the state. Capitalism\u2019s market forces and profit motives are also in play.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s PennDOT, which relies on gas tax money to maintain roadways. It takes the largest chunk of the tax, but other agencies benefit too, such as Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can float a bond,\u201d Boscola said. \u201cWe do it many times. Float the bond for 60 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

She makes it sound simple. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said it isn\u2019t. He suspended the tax there in 2022 and said Floridians didn\u2019t see much relief, concluding the government\u2019s ability to influence fuel prices is marginal.<\/p>\n

A Washington Post editorial concluded: Slashing gas taxes is good politics but terrible policy.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Gas prices jumped Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a sentence that could\u2019ve been said nearly every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8006,8098,62487,49672,4514,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-160117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-doug-mastriano","tag-gas-prices","tag-gas-tax","tag-janelle-stelson","tag-lisa-boscola","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}