Some governors are warming to the idea of a gasoline tax holiday as the Iran war enters its third month and prices at the pump climb toward $4.50 per gallon.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Tuesday that he would freeze the state’s gasoline tax, which was slated to increase in July, and issue an emergency order to cut the tax by 10 cents per gallon. The tax is currently 26.4 cents per gallon.
The Democratic governor, a potential presidential candidate, blamed the Trump administration’s actions in Iran for rising prices, saying the president started a war “without thinking through the costs to the American people.”
“They failed to address the basic question of how they would secure the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, referring to the waterway critical to transporting roughly 20 percent of global oil supply. “They thought the war would be short, that the Iranian people would rise up. They were wrong, and now the American people are paying for it.”
