Editorial: gas pains

How about those gas prices?

Our friends at GasBuddy.com report we in New York are paying nearly 26 cents per gallon more than we were a month ago and a whopping $1.05 per gallon than one year ago.

Surely someone is to blame, right? Presidents take credit when the price at the pump plummets, so they’re certainly within criticism range when the price rises. Vladimir Putin gets a good bonk on the noggin, too, for his Ukrainian exploits. COVID uncertainty rattles the market – an increase in consumer demand as we head back out on the roads post-pandemic and prepare for our typical summertime driving. The gas companies – for Pete’s sake, how is it that gas prices are so quick to go up when the price of oil rises but seem to take forever to drop when the price-per-barrel falls.

And it’s an election year.

Gird yourself, then, for press releases out of Albany proclaiming bills to halt the eight-cents-a-gallon sales tax on gasoline, plans couched with wallet-friendly phrases like “we need to give New York drivers and working families a break” and “it’s a small step we can take to relieve the pain at the pump.” Some media outlets will jump at the opportunity to give that glimmer of hope that there might be some relief in store.

Don’t fall for it.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate the sentiment. It would be a treat to drop gas prices by a quick eight-cents-per-gallon and, if the will were there, chip into the extra 17-cents-a-gallon excise tax on top of that. It would be just as swell, too, to offload that sales tax on school supplies, cars, personal care products, computers, or any other consumer goods. Even temporarily.

New York’s sales tax laws fill a dizzying compendium of ultra-complex statutes, regulations, guidance, decisions, lawsuits, penalties, and bureaucratic mazes that delight tax professionals and attorneys but leave everyday shoppers confused and, rightfully so, irritated. It has been that way since 1965 when we first started sending that “nickel to Rocky” (Gov. Nelson Rockefeller).

Remember those weeks-without-sales-tax on clothing and shoes? They worked beautifully except for when county governments stood up and said “Hey wait a minute, we get half of that revenue and we can’t go without it.” They weren’t wrong. So then Albany did what it did best and botched it, getting rid of the sales tax holiday and instead permanently got rid of its 4 percent sales tax on some clothing and shoes. Every little bit helps, yes, but it’s a prime example of sales tax policy as political pandering.

What concerns us is that those who know these sales tax exemption bills will never go anywhere cynically pump them out with the requisite press hoo-ha that dangerously leads constituents – or would-be constituents – into thinking that they’ve got the power to make the plan a reality. Regardless of which party is at the helm of one or both houses of our state Legislature, these feel-good bills aren’t worth the (expensive) process it takes to draft, introduce, and print them (not to mention the straight-to-the-recycle-bin press releases trumpeting their nothingness). New York and its local governments cannot (or, will not) afford to forfeit the revenue.

While we wish we could indeed blame someone, we must lay responsibility at the feet of a jittery oil marketplace that seemingly shudders with every whisper of international tensions, bad weather, a rough outing for a star quarterback, or a shake in the Matrix. Please don’t add to the pain at the pump and toy with us with a useless call for something you know won’t happen.