House Republican Press Release

June 2, 2007

Press Office: 860-240-8700

HARKINS: DEMOCRATS KILL REPUBLICAN GAS TAX CUT

HARTFORD – House Democrats tonight finally killed the Gas Tax Holiday Republicans crafted to immediately save motorists 25 cents per gallon from Memorial Day to Labor Day, despite widespread public outrage at the record high fuel prices.

The Republican amendment, supported by Representative John Harkins (R-120) would have saved motorists more than $125 million in fuel costs from now until Labor Day and the lost revenue would have been replaced with a portion of the $846 million surplus.

“With only days left in the session, majority Democrats have passed on the one last opportunity we may have had to bring real savings to Connecticut motorists,” said Harkins.  “By voting for it in their tax package which they assumed would be vetoed by Governor Rell, and voting against it every other time it has come up, they are proving that they never supported giving this tax relief, and that they have no intention of ever giving motorists a break over the summer.”

Every Republican in the House and Senate voted to cut the gas tax since the House Republicans first proposed it on May 14. Since then, Democrats used procedural slight of hands to try and fool the public into thinking that they supported the gas tax cut.

Harkins noted that 173 of the 187 lawmakers in the House and Senate have in recent weeks voted to cut the state gas tax, either in amendments or on the Democratic tax legislation that was supported by 90 of the 107 House Democrats. Those votes were for bills that were crafted to give Democrats political cover but stood no chance of ever becoming law.

“No one is fooled by this charade,” said Harkins.  “The Democrats have a supermajority. If they wanted to give Connecticut’s drivers a break on gas prices, they would have already done it.”

This session of the Connecticut General Assembly adjourns at midnight June 6^th, 2007.