Maryland Gas Tax to hit 47 cents per gallon on July 1st

MARYLAND –  Starting July 1st Maryland’s gas tax is set to hit 47 cents per gallon, a 20 percent bump that the State’s Comptrollers office says is due to the tax being tied to the national inflation figure which currently sits at around 8.26% compared to last year.

It’s a price hike that Senate Republicans looked to cancel last session, introducing a bill to decouple the gas tax from inflation that failed to garner enough support.

A similar bill to decouple the tax on metro and transit tickets from inflation was successfully passed, in a move that lawmakers say shows the disconnect between the eastern shore and the rest of the state.

“We’re being treated differently, and that’s not right. It’s not fair, it’s not uniform. And it’s a great example of how Maryland is becoming more of a divergent state, that a unified state,” said Maryland State Senator Johnny Mautz.

Mautz tells 47ABC that while the measure follows inflation, the amount taxed does not decrease when inflation cools, making the tax hike a permanent fixture for drivers.

“The legislature ought to treat this just like they do every other tax increase. It ought to be voted on and people ought to know about it before it’s voted on,” he said.

Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers says that will mean a real squeeze for businesses.

“Everything from the company that delivers your bread to the grocery store, to your local beer distributor, these increases get passed on to the consumer that the shipping company, the manufacturer, the small business owner, they won’t absorb this,” Chambers said.

He says for rural areas, the tax will punish those with no other transit option.

“This hurts exactly the people in Maryland that the General Assembly and the governor are trying to uplift rural areas, businesses, and the average working family,” Chambers said.

Senator Johnny Mautz tells 47ABC he wants to see Governor Wes Moore suspend the gas tax, following the lead of Former Governor Larry Hogan who suspended the tax in 2022.

“If Governor Moore were to step in now and suspend the increase, that is a pivotal decision, It takes a lot of fortitude and a lot of leadership to decide now’s the time to do that,  I think it would be a very, very viable option for the governor to take and I’d urge him to do that right at least until the economy stabilizes a little bit,”  Senator Mautz said.

Chambers tells 47ABC that he believes a mileage tax would be a more equitable system to transition to, as it would cover EVs that use the same roads that gas tax funds are used to repair and maintain.

Mautz says the bump is also placed at a poor time of the year, one he believes could impact tourism.

“Summertime is coming and those vehicles are heading to the Delaware beaches and are going right through Maryland, that’s a big part of that tourist economy chain is people pulling over. It’s just going to give them an incentive not to pull over,” he said.