Mike Braun Signals He May Ignore Indiana Law to Continue Gas Tax Suspension Without Special Session

The governor has suspended the taxes on gas. Of course, we have two taxes in the state of Indiana on gasoline, the sales tax on gas and the excise tax on gas. Governor Braun right now has suspended both of those. And what was laughable to me was I saw a post over the weekend, and I had some creative language in my response to this, that Governor Braun was bragging about our price of gas and our affordability, and I called him a couple names that I won’t say on this program. If you’d like to see those, you can always follow me at Rob Kendall on Twitter, at Rob Kendall on Twitter.

Braun Admits Lower Gas Prices Came From Suspending Taxes, Not Market Changes

But I said, you’re admitting with this post what is obvious to everyone. Taxes make things more expensive. Taxes make things more affordable. Taxes make it harder to buy stuff. When you’re bragging about affordability, all you did was get rid of taxes, which, by the way, Braun had to go kicking and screaming to. Let’s not forget, right? It was months before Braun when we saw these huge increase, the spike in the price of gas, before Braun finally suspended the sales tax on gas. And now he’s added the gasoline tax. Now again, credit where credit’s due. He did it. But let’s not act like this was first and foremost on his mind. Let’s not act like he was from the beginning some great leader on this. It took a long time before he did it. And the big thing that everybody needs to be paying attention to is Braun and the people that are standing behind him on this sales tax on gas and gas tax suspension. By the way, it’s about $0.59 a gallon, $0.59 a gallon, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. And so if you say, hey, I paid 369, I know a lot of people are paying more than that. But at 369 a gallon, you had $0.60 on top of it. It’s 429 is the actual price of gas, the normal price of gas, what it would be without these tax suspensions. What Braun and the Republicans are telling you is, we’re helping you because you’re paying attention. We’re suspending these taxes on gas, not because we believe they’re wrong, not because we believe you shouldn’t have to pay $0.59 a gallon in taxes every time you put gas into your tank. We’re doing it because you’re paying attention and you’re really pissed off. We’re doing it because people are angry. They’re outraged over the price of gas. And unlike in 2022, when people begged Braun and the Republicans, when the Ukraine war started and gas shot up to levels it’s at now or even higher, and the Republicans did nothing. People were hurting then as well. What Braun and the Republicans are admitting now is they’re doing it because gas prices are hurting Trump. That’s the real reason Braun is doing this, not because he cares about you or your financial situation. It’s the real reason the Republicans and the General Assembly are standing behind Braun, but yet did nothing when Biden did it. Gas was expensive then. Gas is expensive now. The taxes on gas were bad then. The taxes on gas are bad now. They’re doing it because they know that the gas prices are hurting Trump, and Braun is doing whatever he can to try to help Trump. Now look, it’s financially helping us. It’s the right thing to do. But we have to mention this because as soon as the gas prices go down, the taxes are going to be reinstated. And if you’re admitting that the taxes are bad and hurtful when gas is 429, the idea of the tax or what it is doesn’t change whether gas is 229, 329 or 529. The tax is the tax. The tax is a regressive tax. The tax is a predatory tax. The tax targets people at doing what they need to do to survive, which is go to work, take their kids to school, take their kids to daycare. There’s a reason the biggest taxes in our state are property taxes and gas taxes. It’s done by design. It’s done because you can’t opt out of them. You have to drive. If you’re going to participate in society, you have to live somewhere. The Republicans are financial predators. I’ve said it for years, and it is obvious in the taxes that they target.

Republicans Accused of Suspending Gas Taxes Only Because Voters Are Paying Attention

Now, what’s interesting is Braun got asked about suspending the taxes again and he didn’t rule it out. This despite the fact that there is a clear 60 day limit when it comes to suspending the taxes. And what’s interesting is why Braun is clearly open to defying Indiana law. Here’s what the Capital Chronicle had to say about the law on the gas taxes. Indiana law allows a governor to declare a state of emergency of energy emergency for up to 60 days. The 60 days is very clearly in the law. It’s not up for debate. It’s not up for discussion. The statute also says a governor, quote, may not renew or extend a proclamation more than once without approval of the General Assembly. He has extended that proclamation once again. It’s in black and white. When Braun got asked about what he plans to do next because he was asked what he plans to do June the 7th when the suspensions expire, which would not only be the 60 days, it would also be the one renewal he got. He said, quote, according to the Capital Chronicle. I’ll be looking at that. It does? Yes. Look like there might be some flexibility to continue it. Well, I did pretty well in reading in public school, got A’s in elementary school, and they had reading as a grade. And right here it clearly says state of Energy Emergency for up to 60 days. I can read that. And it says may not renew or extend a proclamation more than once. Which Braun’s already done without approval of the General Assembly. What’s fascinating is what Braun’s doing. The law is very clear, but Braun is basically saying some would have to sue me to stop it, right? Like that’s how our laws work. Lawmakers do things that are illegal or unconstitutional. It takes someone filing a lawsuit in order to stop them. And Braun is saying two things. One, which, because we don’t know, Republicans will do it. Which Democrat in an election year is going to be the person who sues to make someone pay more for gas? Braun is daring Democrats to sue him. He’s saying it’ll take a lawsuit to stop me. I don’t think the Democrats in an election year are going to come out and go, hey, this is unconstitutional and you people need to pay more for gas. And if they do, and he and then Braun loses in court, he’ll be able to say, well, I tried, I tried. It’s those pesky rotten Democrats that made you pay more for gas. Vote accordingly. I mean, that’s what his goal is. He’s trying to goad the Democrats into suing him, because the reality is Indiana banks so much of its road funding on the taxes on gas, ignoring pleas from people like me years ago when they went all in on the tax on gas as their primary road funding source, that they can’t stop it forever. I mean, or even indefinitely. They don’t have the ability to do that. Braun wants to play victim. Braun wants to be sued here.

Indiana Law Creates Potential Legal Fight Over Braun Extending Gas Tax Suspension

Now, if you really wanted to fix the issue, he would say, hey, to remove all doubt, I’m immediately calling a special session. You know, special sessions guys, what he did for Trump when Trump wanted redistricting. You know what I’m talking about when I talk about special sessions, that sort of special session, you know, the special session we begged him to call on property taxes that he refused to because he said special sessions were pointless. Think about the hypocrisy of Braun when the General Assembly was about to pass a horrible bill on property taxes, which everyone hates. He said no, no point in doing that, because there’s not a will of the General Assembly to pass anything different. So I’ll just sign this bad bill into law. When it came to redistricting, which clearly the General Assembly didn’t have the will to pass because they voted it down, Braun did call the special session because Trump demanded he do it. Now here we are, and he has an opportunity to help everyone continuously at the pump. And instead of passing a clearly illegal additional suspension of the sales tax on gas, he could just call a special session and give the General Assembly a voice. But no, no, no, he’s not going to do that. What’s interesting is the Capital Chronicle said they reached out to the attorney general’s office. That’s Todd Rokita and said, quote, the attorney general’s office did not respond to questions about whether additional extensions of the energy emergency would be legally permissible without action from lawmakers. Now, in fairness, Todd Rokita was very busy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the past week. He was very busy with photo ops. I’m sure he didn’t have time to weigh in on this very important issue, in which hundreds of millions of dollars is at stake and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes are on the line. Rokita was very busy hanging out with Fox and photo op-ing with his fellow attorney generals and bloviating and gladhanding. And he just didn’t have time to get into it because, you know, heaven forbid the guy do his frickin job, right? I mean, there’s photos to be taken. There’s votes to be swayed. He doesn’t have time. Oh, and, you know, it’s not like he’s had months to figure this out, right? It’s not like we’ve been at this gas tax suspension for almost 60 days now. You can’t be asking Todd Rokita to take away from time at the track and do his job or, you know, even put one person on it as he leaves for the week. So the attorney general, whose job it is, is to issue advisory opinions on key legal issues and defend the state in court if they get sued. He was unavailable for comment.

Debate Over Gas Taxes Highlights Larger Republican Approach to Taxation and Government Spending

Again, guys, the takeaway from this for you should not be whether gas is 369 or 429 or 439 or whatever it should be, whether gas is more or less expensive. The takeaway for you guys should be our state government is willing to screw you as long as they think you aren’t paying attention. Our state government, our Republican state government, is willing to stick it to you as long as they think they can get away with it. They’re suspending the sales tax. They’re willing to screw you as long as they think politically, it won’t harm them or their party. They’re suspending the sales tax on gas because everyone’s paying attention to the price of gas. Everyone’s outraged at the price of gas. Everyone’s pissed off at the president and his policies with Iran, which we’ll get to here in the next segment. And so the Republicans said, we got to do something about the price of gas. The gas tax is bad no matter what the price of gas is. The gas taxes are predatory, no matter what the price of gas is. And that should be your takeaway. Your government will screw you as long as they think you can get away with it.