Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico traded barbs over the gas tax Saturday as high gas and diesel prices become a top midterm issue.
At a campaign event at a gas station in Carrollton, Talarico called on his Republican opponent to condemn the ongoing Iran war and join his call to suspend the federal gas and diesel taxes. Hours later, Paxton came out against the gas tax, saying it should be permanently ended.
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Talarico first called for a gas tax pause in April, saying the government should stop taxing people at the pump until prices fall below where they were when the war began in February, when the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran. He has urged Paxton to join his call numerous times.
The price of gas and diesel, Talarico said, is exacerbating an existing affordability crisis in the state. And he called the war as a whole “a disaster.”
“Ken Paxton supports this disastrous war in Iran that’s driving up our costs,” Talarico said. “Today, I am calling on him to oppose this war and support my plan to suspend the federal gas tax and the federal diesel tax so we can provide Texans some necessary relief.”
The average gas price in Texas is $3.94 per gallon for regular gas and $5.90 for a gallon of diesel, according to AAA. Those figures are higher than even a month ago, and the cost of both fuels have risen significantly from one year ago — 69 percent higher for gas and 53 percent for diesel.
Paxton replied by saying he supports suspending the gas tax forever.
“Of course I support suspending the gas tax,” Paxton said. “In fact, I believe we should suspend it permanently. Repealing those taxes would put money straight back into drivers’ pockets every time they fill up, and Washington should fund roads by cutting waste, not by taxing Texans at the pump.”
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. The vast majority of the funds raised from those taxes are deposited into the Highway Trust Fund, which funds federal highway and mass transit spending and capital projects, including the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges.
The tax was established in the 1930s and was raised several times since — most recently in 1993. Since the Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956, politicians have called for a gas tax holiday at numerous points — including during the COVID 19 pandemic — but Congress has never enacted such a law.
In his response, Paxton also accused Talarico of hypocrisy, saying his opponent has supported anti-oil and gas industry policies.
The attorney general did not address Talarico’s call to end the war in Iran. On the campaign trail, Paxton has said that he does not have access to current intelligence on the war, but that he supports the president and that a nuclear Iran would be untenable.
“He said that he thought, or he was told, that Iran was a few days away or a few weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon,” Paxton said in an interview with Bloomberg at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month.
“That we couldn’t allow. So I understand. Would I have preferred it later, after the midterm elections, getting through it, and deal with them later? Yes. But the reality is, it sounds like he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to protect the country from an Iran with nuclear weapons,” he said.