Mike Braun Suspends Indiana Gas Taxes, Fueling Debate Over Years of Unnecessary Tax Hikes

So yesterday Braun, the governor, came out and admitted what I have been saying for the past nine years, and that is that the gas taxes in the state, both of them are totally unnecessary. I use words like giant scam. I don’t think Braun used that verbiage, but for nine years I’ve been saying the gas taxes are nothing but a money grab. And you guys remember all the names I got called over the years by the politicians? Remember the one guy from Seymour? Oh, he’s a shock jock. Oh, he’s just doing this for ratings. He’s this, he’s that. And I take that and that’s fine. It’s easier for those guys just to name call me for calling out their decisions and how they harm you rather than address the decisions and how they harm you. And so the reset on this, most of you know this, but for those who don’t, the reset on this is that in 2017, the Indiana General Assembly, the Republicans enacted the largest tax increase in the history of the state. They raised the excise tax on gas $0.10 per gallon. And then every year since, it’s gone up a penny without debate or discussion and never has to earn that extra penny. They never have to prove they’ve used it wisely. They’ve never had to account for where the money went in order to get it. They just gave it to them. So you’re up. What would that be? Almost $0.20 a gallon since 2017. Every gallon of gas you buy, think about over the course of the year how many gallons of gas that is. You pay $0.20 more per gallon. And there already was an excise tax. It’s not like they invented it. That is a tax increase on top.

Indiana Gas Tax Suspension Sparks Questions About Years of Rising Fuel Taxes

And as if that isn’t bad enough, we have a second tax, which is a sales tax on gasoline. And so we have said, and this is part of what I get so frustrated with during the election, we’ve been screaming about this for almost ten years. We’ve been screaming about the property taxes, utility bills. Nobody was coming in to help us. And yet during the election, I hear Jim Buck voted for the gas tax. Oh, thank you. Thanks for nine years later acknowledging that would have been very helpful when we were fighting that fight on the ground nine years ago. Nobody was there. I think the Club for Growth people were one of the few. I think it was Club for Growth that was one of those groups that was there, but not many. Not many, not many.

Critics Say Indiana Drivers Have Paid More for Less on Roads and Infrastructure

And we have said INDOT does a horrible job on return on investment when you factor in the two gas taxes, the tolling, the wheel taxes, the license plates, all of these taxes that we pay related to our automobiles. Does anybody look at our roads and go, damn, what a value, man. Government is really exceeding our expectations. It’s a great example of how you would never do business with the government if you had a choice. You’d never do business with the government if you had a choice. And so now Braun, the governor, last month, he suspended the sales tax on gas. And he has one more opportunity to do that or had one more opportunity to do that. And yesterday he came out and announced not only is he suspending the sales tax on gas for another month, he’s also suspending the excise tax on gas. So those two things together will save Hoosier motorists 59.3 cents a gallon for the next month. That’s not insignificant. But what we’re hearing is an admission from our governor. They don’t need the gas tax. And he’s only doing this because you’re paying attention to how much gas actually costs. Look, the gas tax would be as ridiculous and as unnecessary if gas were 239 than if gas is 439. This is why you should be outraged. The conversation should be about the thing itself, not the price of gas. Taking money from people just because you can get away with it is not okay. That’s what our government Republicans have been doing for the past nine years. They took it because they could.

Mike Braun’s Temporary Gas Tax Relief Raises Accountability Concerns

Now, because everyone’s really angry about the price of gas, also because of Republicans, gas was fine until we decided we were going to play bomb bomb McGee with Iran. And again, they have done a horrible, they being the administration, has done a horrible job of explaining why they did this and what we’re getting out of it. Horrible. The communication has been horrible. But because everyone’s angry about gas prices now, Braun says, well, I just won’t screw you on our end now. But if the tax is needed, see, they’re admitting the taxes aren’t needed, but they don’t want to have the conversation. They want you to look at Braun and go, oh, what a hero. The way you should be looking at it is why have you been taking, why have you ever been taking 59.3 cents per gallon from me? Not thank you for not taking it from me for a month, because he’s going to take it starting the month after that. He’s going to take it again and then you should be outraged. The issue isn’t the price of gas. The issue is the tax itself. The issue is the tax itself, the poor return on investment we have received. And now for nine years they’ve gotten a free pass on this. So they believe the reduction in these two gas taxes will drop the price of gas about 12.4% in the state of Indiana. Here’s where this also gets interesting. What was the tagline? You guys remember that show Whose Line Is It Anyway? It was a show in the 90s and early 2000. Drew Carey was the host and he would have comedians on, and it was just sketch comedy where he would give them prompts, and then they would have to enact whatever thing he gave them. There were a lot of guys who became famous comedians. Wayne Brady, guys like that were on that show. And I think the tagline was something like where the game’s made up and the rules don’t matter or something like that. That’s this. Because just last month, Braun was asked directly when he suspended the sales tax on gas why he didn’t suspend the excise tax. And by the way, if you guys want to read all of this, Capital Chronicle has a big article on it. Speaking of Capital Chronicle, Niki Kelly is going to join us in a little bit. But Braun said at the time he didn’t have the legal authority to suspend the excise tax on gas. He’s like, I’m doing the sales tax on gas because that’s all I have the legal authority to do. Well, what changed? Like, I’m pretty sure the governor has a team of attorneys on hand to give him advice on this stuff. So did he just switch attorneys? Did he see one of those billboards on the side of the road and go, I’ll call the Hammer or I’ll call Von Wamsley or Stanley Kahn? I’m not liking the in-house advice, Stanley. Can I suspend the gas tax? Like what changed? You just said you can’t do it. Now you’re doing it.

Confusion Over Legal Authority Adds New Questions to Braun’s Gas Tax Decision

So either that was BS, because Niki Kelly, and she’s going to be with us here in a little bit, Niki Kelly in this article, the Capital Chronicle talks about how the statute doesn’t anywhere say he couldn’t do that. They read it up and down. There’s nothing here that says you can do one and not the other. He pulled it out of his ass. He didn’t want to do it. That’s why he didn’t do it. And so either he’s admitting his attorneys are so bad they had to bring someone new in to give him new advice, or he’s just making it all up as he goes along. Mike Braun’s administration are the rules and the tagline for Whose Line Is It Anyway? All of this, all the taxation, it’s all just made up. They do it as they go along, and most important, they do it based on what they think they can get away with. Every tax is that way. Every tax there’s a complete lack of accountability for it. Point on all of this though, nine years later, I’ll accept my apology.