Indiana Gas Tax Debate: Critics Slam State Spending as Braun Refuses to Suspend Excise Tax

We have a bunch of financial predators that run this state, and as such, they target things that you can’t get out of, that you have to have in order to live. Why are two of the highest taxes property taxes and gas taxes. You’ve got to drive places. You’ve got to live somewhere. It isn’t an accident, it’s done by design. And so we have two taxes on gas here in the state of Indiana, three taxes if you count the federal gas tax. So here in Indiana, a special excise tax on gas and a sales tax on gas. Now recently, because of the president’s engagement with Iran, the governor, under immense pressure, took him over a month, but he finally said okay, I’m going to suspend one of the taxes on gas, the sales tax on gas, and that saved people about $0.17 a gallon.

Why Indiana Drivers Pay Multiple Taxes on Gasoline

Now the biggest part of this is that the more gas goes up in price, the more you pay in taxes because it’s a sales tax. So the higher gas gets, the more in taxes you’re going to pay in gas in Indiana. But Braun suspended that tax. He had come out recently and said I’m going to probably suspend it again in May. It’s 30 days at a time, and he was going to suspend it because of the increased price of gas. The actual sales tax on gas was going to go up, it was going to be $0.23 a gallon, up from $0.17. There was talk from the Democrats, a push from the Democrats in Indiana, that Braun should also suspend the excise tax on gas. Now remember, the excise tax on gas goes up every single year without debate or discussion. In 2017 it was the largest tax increase in the history of our state, $0.10 a gallon, and it goes up a penny every year. So you do the math, where we had $0.18, $0.19, $0.20 a gallon per gallon tax increase since 2017 on gas.

Debate Grows Over Whether Indiana Should Suspend the Gas Excise Tax

And so there is a push from the Democrats that Braun should not only, if he really wanted to help people, suspend the sales tax on gas, but also the gas tax itself. Now the hypocrisy of all of this is the Democrats don’t want to cut government. Everything you hear about the Democrats in Indiana is proposing more government. Republicans are all in on more government too, so I’m not saying they’re good guys in this. Republicans are in charge of everything. Everything you dislike about Indiana government is the fault of the Republicans, they’re in charge of everything. But I also have to call hypocrisy when I see the Democrats trying to pretend like they’re fans of the people, because they want to keep spending more money too. Like when Braun is giving away $200 million in free daycare, you’re paying for other people’s daycare. The Democrats are mad it wasn’t more money. So the Democrats are mad. Here’s what Braun said when he got asked about suspending the excise tax and saying no to that. “All of us in public office need to make sure we’re doing what we can. The affordability issues, I’m going to throw everything in the kitchen sink at it.” Braun is the worst word salad, nonsensical, I have no idea what he’s talking about person ever. Whatever you ask him, it’s some bizarre string of words that don’t answer the question. So that was his response about the gas tax, but basically he ended up saying I’m not suspending the excise tax on gas. Greg Porter, who is on Ways and Means, Democrat from Indianapolis, said, "Th state government doesn’t need any more tax revenue. Let me repeat that again. "The state government doesn’t need any more tax revenue. What we need is for people to keep more of their paychecks. It’s about affordability for Hoosiers trying to make ends meet." I agree with him on that. Stop proposing to spend money on things like free daycare for people, many of them not working. But I do agree with him when he says the government doesn’t need any more tax revenue, and everyone should remind Greg Porter of this any time he proposes a new government program. You don’t need any more money, you don’t need any new taxes.

State Spending Priorities Raise Questions About Tax Relief for Hoosiers

So then Braun essentially acknowledged that he is going to, in all likelihood, suspend the sales tax on gas again. He has until May 8th to make that decision. And then I got to thinking, because I’m reading this article, I read this quote from Jefferson Shreve. So Jefferson Shreve, you guys remember him. He is the guy who ran for mayor in Indianapolis. His signature moment was being on stage with Joe Hogsett and spending more time complaining about the condition of the animal shelter rather than Joe Hogsett disappearing during the riots where the city burned and people died. Jefferson Shreve is a coward. He’s also the guy who ran for mayor on a stricter gun control policy than Joe Hogsett. But he got asked about this and said, “I know Braun is considering extending that another 30 days. It’s important that we have the means to maintain our roads, bridges, that state and federal infrastructure. So this can’t go on forever.” And it got me thinking, because you’re seeing with Shreve and others, they’re trying to convince you that any break you get on taxes means services the government is supposed to provide will suffer. Any time they propose you get a break on taxes, somehow government services are going to suffer. That’s basically what Shreve was suggesting. This can’t go on forever, we’ve got projects that need done, you can’t suspend the sales tax forever.

Critics Say Government Waste Undermines Claims About Infrastructure Funding

So it got me thinking about all the things our government has wasted money on recently, and none of those things meant that road projects were going to suffer. Braun just found $200 million for free daycare. You’re paying for someone else to have free daycare. No money for roads. But if you get a $0.17 per gallon reduction, now roads are going to suffer. Recently it was found that FSSA admitted to hundreds of millions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. Roads were going to be just fine then. So now you’ve got roughly $200 million from daycare, another $200 million from waste, now we’re at $400 million. So $400 million wasted, roads were fine then, but you get $0.17 a gallon back and suddenly road projects are in peril. There’s more. The state committed up to $700 million from toll roads to the Bears stadium. So now we’ve got $200 million, $200 million, $700 million, that’s $1.4 billion. That money not going to roads across the state, that’s not going to hurt roads. But you getting $0.17 a gallon back, that’s going to hurt roads. It’s always your fault. And that’s why I didn’t want redistricting, because it was going to be more people like Jefferson Shreve. You’re the problem. The problem isn’t that the government is giving away $200 million for free daycare while you have to work and pay for yours. The problem isn’t that the state wasted hundreds of millions on fraud and abuse.