Georgia’s pause on its gas tax now has a longer runway. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced on Oct. 6 that the state of emergency behind the suspension, and the suspension itself, will run through Nov. 5. The first order had set Oct. 29 as the last day, so the extension adds a week.
What the first order did
Kemp’s Sept. 28 order took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 29. It suspended Georgia’s motor fuel excise tax, which stood at 33.3 cents a gallon on gasoline and 37.3 cents on diesel. The governor’s office tied the emergency to volatility in global energy markets.
When the order was announced, the state’s average price for regular was $4.19 a gallon and diesel was $6.24. A driver who pumps 15 gallons of regular was paying about $5 a fill-up in state tax before the pause, using the 33.3-cent rate, and a trucker taking 100 gallons of diesel was paying $37.30.
The price drop AAA recorded
The Oct. 6 release cites AAA for the early results. A week after the suspension began, regular gasoline in Georgia had fallen by roughly 33 cents a gallon, and diesel had dropped by more than 42 cents. The gasoline figure lines up closely with the 33.3-cent tax that was removed. The diesel drop of more than 42 cents is bigger than the 37.3-cent diesel tax, so part of it came from other price movement…