Senate Pushes on the Gas

A proposed Gas Tax Holiday will be considered by the Senate Investigations & Government Operations Committee on Tuesday.
The legislation comes at a time as regular gas exceeds $4 per gallon in the capital region and suggests 33 cents of state taxes per gallon during the busy four-day Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day holiday weekends.
The senate proposal (SB 4800) was introduced by Senator Greg Ball on Thursday and almost immediately received a committee assignment, which indicates that it will likely be fast tracked through the chamber. This is likely to be contrasted by the soon-to-be introduced version from Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, whose bill will probably never even come up for a committee vote.
The bill's memorandum makes a strangely emotional plea for its enactment:

New York prides itself on the colorful diversity of vacation spots throughout the state. Whether it's camping in the Adirondacks, going to the Saratoga Race Track, hitting the beaches in Coney Island, seeing a show on Broadway or touring the grape growing regions of central and western New York, as a state we have so much to offer.

It will be interesting to see if the practice of "speculation" is ever addressed in this debate in the New York State Legislature, since that is the real culprit for our artificially high gas prices. The practice of speculation receives a passing reference in the bill memo, but it is immediately disregarded as immaterial.