Connecticut transportation and oil industry groups are voicing opposition to a planned 5 cents/gal tax increase on diesel fuel, asking state lawmakers to rethink the tax ahead of a legislative special session, which begins June 12.
The state diesel tax currently is 46.2 cents/gal, the highest in the US, but it is scheudled to increase to 51.2 cents/gal on July 1. The US average is 22.5 cents/gal.
The Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, which represents gasoline and diesel fueling stations, along with trucking industry group Motor Transport Association of Connecticut oppose the increase.
"We've suggested that the state, instead of letting it go to 51.2 [cents/gal], that they cap it at 49 [cents/gal]," MTAC President Michael Riley said in a phone interview Thursday.
The tax regime, which was enacted during a legislative special session in 2007 and went into effect the following year, began with a 29 cents/gal base, adding an annually adjusted variable tax calculated by the previous year's wholesale price per gallon of diesel fuel.
ICPA has called the increase an addition to "what is already a punishing, uncompetitive and regressive" amount.
Eugene Guilford, the group's CEO, said the 5 cents/gal increase should be repealed. Furthermore, the diesel tax should be rolled back significantly, as former state Governor John Rowland did with the gasoline tax during his tenure from the mid-1990s to 2004.
"We have a disagreement with the State of Connecticut with the whole issue of gasoline and diesel taxes," Guilford said. "[The diesel tax] makes our state incredibly uncompetitive at its current level. There is no amount of increase we would consider fair."
Despite the groups' call for a cap, MTAC's Riley is realistic about the prospects of a delay, repeal or adjustment.
"Realistically, there are a lot of other people aligned to get their things done" in the upcoming special session, he said. "We have sympathetic members who would like to help us, but the administration has not indicated it would support this thing, and that's a critical piece of support."
Meanwhile, Guilford reiterated ICPA's opposition to the tax and said the group will "work very hard to convince the governor and lawmakers why [the increase] should be repealed."
A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services did not return a call requesting comment.
