On Tuesday, Massachusetts state lawmakers stripped Gov. Maura Healey's gas tax suspension out of their $2.3 billion supplemental budget, killing the proposal before it had a chance for a full vote.
Last month, Healey announced her proposal to temporarily suspend the state's gas tax for two months. The governor said the estimated $120 million in consumer savings would have been covered by excess revenue from the state's so-called "millionaire's tax," but the House Ways & Means Committee pulled it from the supplemental budget they are currently debating.
"I am disappointed and I am going to keep fighting for it," Governor Healey told WBZ-TV Tuesday night. "Because this is about providing relief to people. Donald Trump got us in this war, it's raising the price of everything, including the price at the pump. People can't afford it."
Healey doubled down and said the state has the money to pull this off. The chair of the House Ways & Means Committee suggested he didn't see a way to keep gas stations from raising prices to offset the 24 cents.
Mike Minogue, the Republican candidate for governor, grilled Healey for not getting her own proposal across the finish line. "She said there's only so much a governor can do, well then push back on the legislature," Minogue said. "She did not push back on the audit. She's not pushing back on the gas tax. She said she had the money for it and the legislature is blowing her off. We have a one-party system; they do whatever they want. We need balance."
Minogue, who has his own proposal for eliminating the gas tax, said he would have funded it with dollars from exposing "waste, fraud and abuse" within state government.
WBZ met Mike Ballas filling up his tank. He said gas prices have caused his family to change how they go about their day and even forced them to change their car.
"My wife got a hybrid car," Ballas said. "So we save now almost two tanks of gas a month. [We take] less trips, carpooling, kids almost exclusively carpool to soccer now. There is no single driver trips anymore."
Sharon Bracket drives from Boylston to Boston four times a week for work and has to fill up twice a week. "This car takes premium, so almost $6 a gallon," she said. "I am not happy. It's not just gas prices. It's the price of everything."
Bracket is unconvinced the alleged 24 cents in savings per gallon would make a real difference, citing the staggering cost of living. "I think it's a wash. I think it's a last-ditch effort to try to turn around some voting," she said. "They are thinking people are taking hard hits here and feeling it, but I think people are feeling it everywhere."
