Oregon, Washington governors say 'no' to state gas tax pause

PORTLAND, Ore — President Biden on Wednesday announced he was calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas and diesel tax for a period of 3 months.

The White House said that the president would also call on states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide similar relief.

KATU News reached out to both Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Washington Governor Jay Inslee to see if they would follow the President's call to suspend state gas taxes.

Both indicated that they would not be putting a pause on the local state fuel taxes.

In a statement, Governor Brown's office said:

"Governor Brown understands the impact that the rising cost of gas is having on working families and businesses alike. However, with gas prices having jumped by several dollars per gallon over the last several months, it’s unlikely that Oregonians would see significant savings at the pump under this latest proposal."

Suspending federal and state gas taxes would also require bipartisan legislative action to enact, and to address the resulting revenue impact at a time when we are working on critical transportation projects funded by the Highway Trust Fund.

"The Governor absolutely believes we should continue to make targeted investments to help Oregonians feeling the impacts of the rising cost of living the most—investments such as the $600 direct payments that are going out to approximately 240,000 working families this week (HB 4157), the $400 million investment we’re making in housing, and the $100 million investment we’re making in child care."

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Washington Governor Jay Inslee's office said:

"Pausing the gas tax provides yet another opportunity for oil companies to pocket more profit while significantly hindering our ability to put people to work fixing and building roads and bridges."