South Cook News

Republican Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison thinks that the state's gas tax should be suspended.

"While the price at the gas pump continues to crush many Illinois residents, it's time for our state government to find a viable relief mechanism for working families. Illinois should suspend its gasoline tax. Current costs at the pump combined with the excessive gas tax that Gov. Pritzker passed left us with gas tax hikes in 2020, 2021 - and soon the July 2022 tax increase will kick in! Call your state reps & state senators and tell them to suspend the gas tax," Morrison said.

According to Illinois Policy, residents in Illinois are already paying the second-highest gas tax in the United States. The state gas tax was doubled from 19 cents to 38 cents by Gov. Pritzker back in 2019. Before this hike, Illinois was ranked 10th in terms of gas tax.

 "We really don't think that there's a huge need in the state of Illinois to be sending more money to local government or allowing local government to tax more than they already are because they're already getting a huge cut of the revenue that's already out there," said Josh Sharp, president and CEO of the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association.

The average price of a regular gallon of gasoline in Illinois is $4.463 as of March 31, according to AAA, up from $3.712 one month ago and $3.056 one year ago. In Cook County, gas prices average $4.706 as of March 24.

 "Anything right now would help, the gas prices, like I said, they keep going up. Even a little bit of relief, I think, is going to go a long way for people," said Evan Johnson, a resident of Illinois to WTHI TV.

WIFR reported that though Gov. Pritzker decided to freeze the gas tax next year, Republican legislators think Illinoisans need relief sooner than that. "None of the proposals from the House Republicans have seen significant movement since they were introduced," according to WIFR.