Moore Had the Power to Cut Your Gas Bill. He Chose Not To.

By MDBayNews Staff

Maryland drivers are paying 46 cents per gallon in state gas taxes — the eighth-highest rate in the nation, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute. That’s before the federal 18.4-cent levy. Before the price of crude. Before anything else hits your receipt at the pump.

Governor Wes Moore knows this. He said so himself.

On CBS’s Face the Nation this past Sunday, Moore was pressed directly on whether he would consider suspending Maryland’s gas tax to ease the financial pain on working families. His answer was a pivot: the real solution, he said, is to end foreign wars in the Middle East, because the conflict is driving up oil prices globally.

That’s a talking point for a presidential campaign, not an answer from a sitting governor.

Moore has the authority to propose a gas tax holiday. Maryland has done it before — the state suspended the gas tax in 2022 when prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It worked then. The mechanism exists. The precedent is there.

What’s missing is the will.

Maryland’s gas tax is indexed to inflation, meaning it rises automatically every year without a single vote in Annapolis. In 2013, the legislature tied the rate to the Consumer Price Index — a quiet little machine that has added roughly 15 cents per gallon to what Marylanders pay at the pump since then, with no legislator ever having to take a vote for the increases that followed.

Meanwhile, the national average gas price is hovering around $4.00 per gallon, according to AAA. In parts of the Washington suburbs, drivers are paying more. Rising energy costs from the Iran conflict are filtering through the market in real time.

Moore says he can’t control global oil prices. He’s right. But he can control what Maryland layers on top of them. Virginia drivers — just across the Potomac — are paying 41 cents per gallon in state taxes. The difference is real money for families who commute, who drive for work, who can’t telecommute their way out of a fill-up.

The governor’s campaign is built on affordability. His reelection announcement talked about making Maryland “more affordable” and fighting for the working class. But affordability isn’t a bumper sticker — it’s a series of choices made by people in power when those choices cost them something politically.

Suspending the gas tax would cost the governor something. The Transportation Trust Fund depends on it. Transit advocates would push back. The math would be uncomfortable.

So instead of an uncomfortable decision, Marylanders got a foreign policy lecture.

Governor Moore: You can’t end a war from Annapolis. But you can pick up the phone and call a special legislative session. You can propose a 90-day suspension of the state gas tax and dare the legislature to vote it down. You can govern.

Or you can keep running for a job you don’t have yet, from the office you already hold.

---

Keep MDBayNews Reporting Free

MDBayNews exists to help Marylanders understand decisions made by state and local leaders — especially when those decisions affect daily life, rights, and public services.

If this article helped clarify what’s happening or why it matters, reader support makes it possible to keep publishing clear, independent reporting like this.

👉 Support Local Journalism

Have a tip or documents to share?

We review submissions carefully and confidentially. Anonymous tips are welcome when appropriate.

 👉 Submit a Tip