The intimate to raise the federal gas tax is hitting a new roadblock.
A report released Tuesday by the temperate group Freedom Partners found that a 25-cent hike in the gas tax would extend costs for households by hundreds of dollars a year. The average amount distributes from $103.39 in Washington, D.C., to a high of nearly $390.62 in Mississippi.
Manumission Partners, which is backed by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, is dollop to lead the fight against the increase. It has sent letters to the White Forebears and to Capitol Hill opposing the move – particularly coming on the heels of the exhaustive Republican tax cuts that Freedom Partners and its sister networks out millions of dollars to push through Congress.
“Undermining the impact of this extensive overdue and badly needed tax relief by raising the federal gas tax would be counterproductive and misdirected – hitting less affluent Americans and those living on fixed takings the hardest,” read a letter to Congress from Freedom Partners and with regard to 30 other conservative advocacy groups.
GOP leadership appears to father little appetite for taking on the gas tax, with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas styling bluntly last month that he is not in favor of raising it. But President Donald Trump again brought up the idea during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers persist week as a way to pay for his $1.5 trillion infrastructure package, according to Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.
The U.S. Body of Commerce has also been a vocal proponent, arguing that a 25-cent swell would help offset years of underinvestment. The federal gas tax has not been pull together since 1993 and currently stands at 18.4 cents.
“With tax correct complete, Americans have more money in their pockets. Vocations have more money,” said Ed Mortimer, executive director of transportation infrastructure at the Congress. “But if we don’t modernize our infrastructure, we’re not going to have long-term economic growth in this rural area.”