Georgia’s state taxes on gasoline and diesel will be suspended for another month after Gov. Brian Kemp extended the tax rollback in a Friday executive order.
The suspension of the taxes, at 31.2 cents per gallon of gasoline and 35 cents per gallon of diesel, had been scheduled to end next Thursday but will now run through at least Nov. 11.
The Republican governor last month revived what was a campaign tactic during his reelection bid in 2022, when he signed a law suspending the gas tax with broad bipartisan support. Kemp signed seven separate extensions after that, with the state forgoing an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue from March 2022 to January 2023.
Georgia’s governor can suspend the collection of taxes during an emergency as long as lawmakers approve it the next time they meet. In September, Kemp issued a novel legal declaration finding that high prices were such an emergency. The 2022 suspensions came under a state of emergency related to COVID-19.
Kemp says tax relief for Georgians helps them deal with inflation, although most economists say giving consumers more money typically increases inflation as well.
