PORT ANGELES — If government really wants to ease the burden of high gasoline prices on consumers, it should target oil company profits.
So says District 24 Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, whose district includes Jefferson and Clallam counties.
On Wednesday, Kessler, who is House Majority Leader, came out swinging against a proposal by House Republicans that would suspend the state’s 31-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax for three months.
The proposal met a quick death when Gov. Christine Gregoire and Democrats, who control both the state Senate and House, said they opposed it.
“Oil companies are making unprecedented profits during a time of war and in the aftermath of a horrible disaster in the South,” Kessler said.
“They are profiteering on everyone’s misery.
“Why [repeal the state’s gas tax] when we should be going after the culprits?”
Kessler said that if anything, lawmakers should impose a “profiteering” surtax on the oil industry.
Gas prices have been rising so quickly that consumers might not even notice a tax cut, Kessler said.
“Nobody would notice a thing and yet our coffers would be wiped out,” she said.
District 24 Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, said he disagrees with Kessler’s logic.
“Why not do both?” Buck said.
“My guess is that the [federal government] will try to do something about” the profiteering by oil companies, Buck said.
“Buy I don’t know that we can be effective on the state level.”
On the other hand, Buck said, it is important to halt the collection of the state’s gas tax because gasoline prices affect “everything we buy that comes into the North Olympic Peninsula.”
“My primary concern is that people are not seeing increases in their paychecks that would allow them to just forget about the increased prices,” he said.
