{"id":290495,"date":"2026-05-13T02:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290495\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T02:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:13:06","slug":"gas-tops-4-in-texas-as-bipartisan-group-of-lawmakers-back-tax-pause-to-cut-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290495\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas tops $4 in Texas as bipartisan group of lawmakers back tax pause to cut prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 With the average price of a gallon of gas in Texas topping $4, some leaders from Austin to Washington, D.C., are backing a temporary pause on gas taxes as a way to deliver relief.<\/p>\n

Veronica Valdez Rodriguez was pumping gas at a southeast Austin station on Tuesday. She said the rising costs are becoming unmanageable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sky high,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI can barely get by, you know? It\u2019s too expensive.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said she is spending $40 more every week on gas.<\/p>\n

According to AAA Texas, the average cost of a regular gallon of fuel stood at over $4.01 in the Austin area on Tuesday, $1.24 higher than the average one year ago.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said he is working to pause the federal gas tax, which is 18 cents per gallon. <\/p>\n

A reporter asked the president on Monday how long the tax would be suspended.<\/p>\n

“Until it\u2019s appropriate. It\u2019s a small percentage, but it\u2019s, you know, it\u2019s still money,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

ALSO| Austin reaches $35 million settlement with men exonerated in 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders<\/a><\/p>\n

KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In Texas, an 18-cent-per-gallon pause could add up to savings of about $2 to $3 on an average tank of gas.<\/p>\n

Support for a federal pause is coming from both parties. State Rep. and U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico (D-Austin) backed the idea last month. <\/p>\n

\u201cLowering prices at the pump should be a bipartisan commitment,\u201d Talarico said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he didn’t know the details of the president’s plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between a temporary suspension and a permanent suspension,” Cornyn said Monday. “I don’t know exactly what the President has in mind. I think a temporary suspension getting through this sort of bumpy time because of uncertainty about energy prices, I can live with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is calling for a state gas tax pause as well. The state tax currently sits at 20 cents per gallon, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n

The state pause is also being urged by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who has called on Governor Greg Abbott to act.<\/p>\n

“Governors in Indiana, Georgia, and Utah have already stepped up to provide relief for their citizens, and I once again renew my call for Governor Abbott to follow the lead of President Trump and act decisively for Texas families,” Miller wrote on Monday.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office, however, said a state gas tax pause is not an option under his executive authority.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the governor’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, wrote in response to Miller:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason Sid Miller lost his election, it\u2019s because he doesn\u2019t shoot straight with Texans. Any suggestion that the Texas governor is authorized by law to suspend a gas tax is entirely uninformed or purposefully misleading. If the Texas governor could suspend taxes, he would have suspended the property tax years ago.<\/p>\n

At the federal level, the Bipartisan Policy Center said a gas tax holiday would require an act of Congress. The group also estimated that a five-month pause could cost as much as $17 billion.<\/p>\n

Some drivers, like Rodriguez, said any break would help.<\/p>\n

\u201cPause the taxes!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 With the average price of a gallon of gas in Texas topping $4, some leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-290495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}