The state’s latest gas tax hike could be eliminated if a local senator gets her way. 

State Senator Michele Brooks, R district 50, voted for Senate Bill 35 which would stop the controversial automatic gas tax increase for this year.

The senator said higher gas prices affect everyone, not just those who drive.

“I think it’s terrible, I mean it’s really bad it’s because people can barely afford to live with the food prices and everything so high, everything is just bad,” Lucille Harden, Erie resident.

For the first time, the average wholesale price of gasoline exceeded $2.99 a gallon last year. This triggered an automatic increase in the states gas tax that went into effect Jan. 1, if enacted, the bill would roll back.

“What we did was cap the wholesale price at $2.99 so it would stop the automatic triggers of increasing Pennsylvania’s gas tax,” Senator Brooks said.

She said higher gas prices are taking more money out of consumers’ wallets at a time when our families can least afford it.  

She said if you look at prices from Jan. 1, you saw an automatic increase in three cents to three and a half cents. That’s when the trigger went into effect.

“The wholesale price went above $2.99 to $3.16 or $3.17 so and that triggered the automatic increase in the gas tax and what this legislation does is that it stops that automatic trigger and the other great news is that we are repealing that three cent increase” Brooks explained.

She added projections indicate the average Pennsylvania household will spend nearly $2,500 at the gas pump in 2023, this includes about $380 per driver in gas taxes alone.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.