At his press conference Wednesday, (we can no longer call them “COVID briefings” in good faith) Gov. Justice once again shot down the idea of a gas tax holiday, largely due to Republican legislators’ opposition. At the time, though, Justice said he was open to ideas.
So we’d like to pitch him our idea (again).
When the gas tax pause was initially suggested back in March, we agreed with Republicans that it wasn’t the best option. The gas tax is about 35.7 cents per gallon. If you have a 13-gallon tank, you’d save $4.64 every fill up. Even if you have to fill up every single day, you’d only save about $140 by the end of the month, or less than $19 if you fill your tank once a week. As a point of reference, at the time of this writing, West Virginia gas prices averaged about $4.87. Even if you’re paying about $4.52 for a gallon of gas, you’re still spending $58.70 on a fill up, or around $236 if you fill up once a week for a month.
So, spread across thousands of users, a gas tax pause would be a major blow to the road fund while providing very little personal relief.
What West Virginia needs is a more targeted form of support. Which is why we once again recommend that the State of West Virginia sends each person $100. Or, if our legislators are feeling particularly generous, $200. This could be as a check or as a pre-paid gift card.
When we say each person, we mean everyone, regardless of age. While an infant isn’t exactly going to go shopping, their parents are, and that money can go a long way toward buying formula or diapers. Similarly, giving parents and guardians a one-time payment on behalf of their children will allow them to offset some of the increasingly steep costs of feeding, transporting and clothing their families.
The other advantage to a one-time payment is it can be used for products other than gas. Prices for other necessities (namely food) are skyrocketing and those costs impact everyone, not just people with their own vehicles.
For our estimations, we’ll assume everyone in the state, regardless of age or income, gets a one-time payment, and we’ll even use the round 1.8 million for the number of people in the state. If the government gave everyone $100, the total cost would be less $180 million, or for $200, less than $360 million.
If the Legislature felt it absolutely necessary, it could put a cap on the benefit. We’ll say more than $90,000 for an individual and more than $200,000 for a family. With a cap in place, the total cost for a one-time payment would be even less than the estimates above.
These seem like large numbers, true, but West Virginia’s surplus revenues were $1.07 billion in May, with two months left to go in the fiscal year. As legislators have mentioned, about $300 million of that has not been appropriated for the next fiscal year yet. That amount would easily cover most if not all of our proposed financial assistance to West Virginians — without impacting the road fund or any other budget.
To paraphrase a certain commercial for legal services: It’s our money, we should be able to use it when we need it — and right now, we need it.
