A new report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) has found that state “gas tax holidays” do little to lower prices at the gasoline pump.
In a report released Tuesday, ARTBA said its analysis of 177 changes in state gasoline tax rates in 34 states between 2013 and 2021 resulted in, on average, just an 18 percent increase or decrease in prices passed on to motorists in the retail price of gas in the two weeks after a change took effect.
The report comes as 24 states have enacted or are considering a temporary suspension of statewide gas taxes and other transportation-related user fees. Members of Congress have also introduced national legislation that would suspend the federal gas tax for the rest of the year.
“In the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and record inflation along with high gas prices, efforts by federal and state lawmakers to bring relief to consumers are well-intentioned,” ARTBA Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black said. “But they are ineffectual in the short-term, and they compromise revenues for transportation improvements in the long-term.”
The study used data from the Oil Petroleum Information Service (OPIS) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). ARTBA’s conclusions are similar to other academic studies on gas tax holidays – that the price of crude oil is the primary driver of changes in gas prices, not gasoline taxes.
Specifically, the report looked at 2021 gas tax rate decreases in New Jersey and Georgia. New Jersey decreased its gas tax rate 8.3 cents-per-gallon effective on Oct. 1, 2021, while Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp suspended his state’s gas tax rate of 28.7 cents for a month on May 10, 2021.
In New Jersey, the price of gas stayed constant for three days, the report found, before increasing with the rise of crude oil prices. New Jersey motorists were paying 7 percent more for a gallon of gas by the end of the month. The Garden State’s residents would pay more for gasoline every day for the rest of the year.
In Georgia, the price of gas spiked from $2.87 on May 10 to $2.97 on May 14 before settling at $2.91 per gallon on June 2, when the gas tax was reinstated. Despite the reinstatement of the 28.7-cent gas tax, the average price of gas stayed at $2.91 for the rest of June.
“The New Jersey and Georgia cases highlight the negligible effect changing gas tax rates can have on retail gas prices,” Black said. “That’s why gas tax holidays are not the best policy for rising prices – they take money away from transportation system investment and don’t necessarily stem the pain consumers feel at the pump.”