A Tale of an Illinois Gas Tax Holiday

[WeDidIt]

LEt me tell you the story of the Illinois "Gas Tax Holiday".

The Illinois legislature got the bright idea that there should be a gas tax holiday. Everybody in the state thought it was a great idea, including me. We were suffering under the higher prices and needed some form of relief.

So they pass the "Gas Tax Holiday" and the price of gas dropped overnight.

Within a week, the oil companies had jacked up the price of gas right back where it was. Within a month it was ten cents per gallon higher than it was before the gas tax holiday.

So the state lost revenues, the oil companies made out like highway bandits, and the consumers paid even higher prices.

And there wasn't some "windfall profits tax" for the oil companies to pass along to the consumers, either.

Obama learned his lesson and knows what he's talking about.

[SeattleGirl]

1. Yep.

Saw him talking about that the other night.

[Yossariant]

2. Maybe Barack thought the third time he voted for it was the charm!

:rofl:

I any event, you are misreprenting what happened to gas prices in IL after the tax holiday.

And I'm shocked!

"The gas tax moratorium proved politically popular in Illinois, but economically questionable. The Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission estimated that the state lost $175 million in revenues during the six-month period. A subsequent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that gas prices fell by 3 percent, meaning that only three fifths of the savings from reduced taxes was passed on to consumers."

[jordi_fanclub]

3. WOW... So if "only three fifths of the savings from reduced taxes was passed on to consumers."

This means that instead of an average total of $30 after the "hillydays",
the net result of such "bonus" to the consumer is 60% of $30 or... $18 in 3-months!!!

A real "FABULOUS" Hill-politics!!!!

[Warren Stupidity]

4. File under "No Duh", or perhaps "Pander Bear".

I now officially loathe senator clinton. Before I just disliked her, but sort of admired her fierce determination to fight on. Not any more. Between her casual obliteration of the ancient people of persia and her adoption of tax cut idiocy I am done with that woman.