- Source: State House News Service, 9/23/22:
- Gas Tax Suspension Question Eyeing 2024: An effort is afoot to put a question on the 2024 ballot that would suspend the state's gas tax any time that the average per gallon price of regular gas is $3 or more, but supporters will have to pay now to help advance the potential to save at the pump later. The attorney general's office has certified three versions of a possible ballot question filed by Sign2SuspendTheGasTax.org, an initiative petition committee started by Harold Hubschman of Brookline. The certification clears the committee to start collecting 100,000 signatures to keep advancing towards the 2024 statewide election, and Hubschman said Friday morning that his campaign is not going to deploy paid signature-gatherers or have volunteers stand outside grocery stores. Instead, it will use "a never before attempted strategy for collecting signatures." "Massachusetts voters will be invited to visit https://Sign2SuspendTheGasTax.org and request that a petition be mailed to them," the campaign said in a press release. "To receive the petition, voters will be asked to donate $2.95 to cover the cost of collecting and processing all the signatures on their petition. (If everyone in the voter's household signs, it's still $2.95)." The price to support the petition drive is roughly equal to paying the state's 24-cents-per gallon gas tax on 12 gallons of gas (almost a full tank in a Toyota Corolla). The proposed question would first change the way the gas tax is assessed. Instead of having gas stations pay the tax on their bulk deliveries from wholesalers and then work that cost into the price of gas, the proposal would have drivers pay the gas tax directly at the pump so it would appear as its own line item on a receipt. "This way, a driver filling up at a time when the gas tax is suspended will be sure that they are not paying the gas tax and that the distributors, suppliers and gas stations are not making a windfall profit," the campaign said. The campaign said Hubschman "has been running signature drives for nearly 30 years" and that "his firm has run over 100 statewide signature drives (all of them successful) in 26 states, for ballot initiative and for candidates at all levels, from city council and mayor to presidential campaigns." The committee hopes to use the same approach to other issues, too. The AG's office has also certified a petition filed by Hubschman that would create a framework of tax credits and rebates for electric vehicles, vehicle conversions and home heating conversions. "Our long-term objective is to build an online community of Massachusetts voters, and eventually voters in every ballot initiative state in the country, who want to sign petitions to put issues on the ballot that have broad popular support but that our legislators won't pass," Hubschman said. "Eventually campaigns will be able to use our platform to collect signatures the way they now use political donation platforms to raise money. Voters will come to our platform to, in effect, donate a signature the way they go to websites such as ActBlue or WinRed to donate money." — Colin A. Young 9:44 AM September 23