Ohio lawmakers will be summoned back to Columbus next Wednesday, the leaders of the House and Senate said, for a rare and politicized last-minute session just six days before early voting kicks off.
The main item on the agenda is a bill, right now still being drafted by the Legislative Service Commission, to immediately enact a 90-day gas tax holiday.
Halting state excise taxes on motor fuel, even for 90 days, could leave the state with a more than $600 million hole in revenue, according to House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima), of which the Ohio Department of Transportation will likely have to absorb.
Ohio taxes gasoline at $0.385 per gallon and diesel at $0.47 per gallon.
To be enacted immediately, some Democrats will need to vote for the fast-tracked effort, led by Vivek Ramaswamy, since it will include an emergency clause.
Regardless of whether they are on board, Huffman said the House vote Wednesday.
“Democrats who vote against this are doing it at their peril,” Huffman told reporters, while standing in front of red ‘Vivek for Ohio’ signs. “This is a very easily understood issue: Should you not have to pay the gas tax for the next 90 days?”
Ramaswamy, the GOP nominee for governor, and Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor, both called for gas tax holidays earlier this week—Acton, hours before Ramaswamy. As the U.S. conflict with Iran nears its seventh month and the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily restricted, the cost of diesel is cracking records.
“Ohioans are suffering at the pump, through no fault of their own,” Ramaswamy said to state lawmakers, aides and reporters gathered at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning.
Chamber President and CEO Steve Stivers, who two months ago criticized halting the gas tax, lauded the new proposal, saying it would honor “a full and immediate backfill of infrastructure dollars” by using excess revenue.
The legislature was not scheduled to come back from their recess until after the election.
