37 municipalities request Beshear’s gas tax reduction after KY lawmakers question the move
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said 37 local governments have requested the state continue reducing the gasoline sales tax in their areas by 10 cents after a Wednesday night deadline through June 30.
Beshear, a Democrat, said in his Thursday press conference that some cities and counties withdrew their requests ahead of the deadline. Some Republican lawmakers have previously criticized the move, arguing it could cost the state tax dollars.
“The pressure that they put on counties and cities, saying that they might take some of their projects away from them in the budget, is probably the reason they withdrew,” Beshear said. “If you’re a city or county, you shouldn’t be threatened by your legislature. It’s really unfortunate, because Kentucky families are the ones that pay the price for those political games, and the prices are going to continue.”
The governor signed an executive order in May to lower the state gas tax and free it starting in July. Beshear had said on Tuesday 33 jurisdictions had requested an extension. However, more entities signed on while some withdrew their request. Beshear issued an updated executive order Thursday.
Republicans on the Interim Transportation Committee questioned Transportation Cabinet officials last week about the gas tax reduction. According to the cabinet’s presentation, the governor’s executive order has an estimated loss impact to the state’s road project fund of $26.8 million for one month.
Sen. Jimmy Higdon, the Lebanon Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said during the meeting while Beshear had proposed that the loss be recuperated by the state’s flush rainy day fund, lawmakers could decide another route next year and reduce road funding from local governments that participate in the gas tax reduction.
“The way that it’s backfilled when they come back next year might be that they take it away from the cities and counties that participate, and that’s what I would encourage them to do,” Higdon said. His term ends in December. “All the cities and counties across the state should not suffer from what some cities and counties decided to do.”
On Thursday, Beshear pushed back at accusations from the GOP that the move was “political pandering,” saying that Republican President Donald Trump has floated the idea of suspending the federal gas tax as prices have risen during the U.S. war with Iran. Beshear added that he wrote Trump a letter “offering support for freezing or reducing or suspending the federal gas tax.”
Beshear added that he also encouraged Trump to resolve the Iran conflict and told him about “the pandering accusations, because I think they’re being made against him too.”
Beshear declined to directly name any city or county official who had expressed to him they felt pressure from lawmakers to not request the extension.
Henderson Mayor Brad Staton said in a Wednesday Facebook post the city chose to not request an extension because the tax funds road projects.
“I cannot support jeopardizing any of the many, many projects we have on the books in coordination with our state for a 10-cent reduction at the distributor that may not even be fully realized by the consumer at the pump after the service stations price their gas and that would be temporary in nature and that would amount to less than $5/month for the limited time it would be in effect for most consumers,” Staton wrote. “That would not have been a decision made with Henderson’s best interest in mind.”
According to AAA, the average regular gas price in Kentucky was about $3.69 on Thursday while the national average was about $4.12.