With the state’s Gas Tax Holiday entering its fourth day, many motorists around the state were fueling up at lower prices on Monday. The $.25 cent per gallon state tax has been suspended until the end of June.
While motorists were filling their tanks, the attorney general’s office was investigating. It is looking into 163 complaints they’ve received since Friday about some service stations not dropping the $.25 cent tax.
The office of the Attorney General said it has sent out 83 letters to service stations requesting information about their pricing.
“That’s the way the law is written by the legislature and the governor, and that’s how I am going to enforce it,” said Attorney General, William Tong.
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Meanwhile, the Gasoline & Automotive Service Dealers of America (GASDA) is standing up for some retailers. They said they’ve heard from 27 service stations that needed to take fuel deliveries before April 1, and paid for that inventory with the tax.
“To expect that maybe 1000 retailers or more were going to be able to get a delivery on Friday was just ridiculous and made no sense,” said GASDA Executive Director, Michael Fox.
Because of the timing, GASDA said some stations have been saddled with higher costs. They paid the $.25 cent tax and a wholesale price that was 12 cents higher on April 1.
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Most places however, have dropped prices. According to AAA of Greater Hartford, the Gas Tax Holiday is making a difference. Today’s average price per gallon of regular-grade is $4.03, down from $4.27 before the regulation began on April 1.
While the average of regular-grade has dropped by $.24 cents, mid-grade is down by $.20 cents and premium by $.18 cents.
However, AAA said this is short-term and provides perspective, pointing out the average price per gallon was $2.89 this time, last year.
“While a drop of $.24 is welcome, it’s nowhere near where we were a year ago,” said AAA of Greater Hartford spokesperson, Tracy Noble.
With this in mind, people are taking advantage of lower prices but many still want more relief.
“It’s still high,” said Tony Stepensky of Newington. “It needs to go down some more and hopefully it will.”
