New York Sen. O’Mara criticizes new proposed gas tax

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On Tuesday, New York Sen. Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-58th District) joined the opposition to proposed state legislation that could raise the state’s gas tax by 55 cents per gallon.

The legislation, S4264/A6967, also known as the Climate and Community Investment Act, would accelerate state-level actions to further climate change policies and includes a 55-cent gas tax increase, as well as increases in heating, oil, propane, and natural gas. The proposal is estimated to increase home heating bills by 26 percent.

“New York’s out-of-control Democrat supermajorities just enacted a state budget raising taxes by nearly five billion dollars, and here we go again. It will be an unending search for more tax dollars to afford more spending, and every taxpayer will pay the price. The ink on the new state budget is barely dry, and the Democrats are already eyeing their next tax hike opportunities, including a potential fifty-five-cents-per-gallon gas tax to help generate revenue to implement a radical, unsustainable, impractical climate change agenda,” O’Mara said.

O’Mara and others in the Senate Republican Conference and in opposition to the proposal said the legislation would implement regressive taxes that would hit lower- and middle-income families, as well as workers, motorists, truckers, manufacturers, and seniors the hardest.

According to the Tax Foundation, New York currently has the seventh-highest gas tax in the country. California’s is the highest at 62.47 centers per gallon. The legislation would increase New York’s current 43.12 cents per gallon gas tax to nearly a dollar, increasing more than 127 percent. The increase would make the state’s gas tax more than 57 percent higher than any other state.