Indiana drivers will feel some relief at fuel pumps for the sixth month after Gov. Mike Braun announced another gas tax holiday Wednesday.
“This relief will continue without interruption again in all 92 counties,” Braun said in an Indianapolis news conference. “Keeping these taxes suspended will leave more money in the pockets of Hoosiers, and they need it now, again, because affordability is the real issue.”
Braun announced the suspension of both the usage and excise taxes through Nov. 4. He also, for the first time, suspended the special fuel restrictions for dyed diesel, allowing farmers to use dyed diesel for any farm activity. Dyed diesel is fuel that has been intentionally tinted with a color, usually red, to distinguish it from taxable diesel and it is intended for specific or off-road uses.
“Farming is the hardest occupation out there,” Braun said. “Your business partner is the weather. Thank goodness, their prices on soybeans and corn have gone up a bit, and a lot of that’s being offset by the cost of what they need to put in their own combines to harvest it.”
Diesel prices have almost doubled in Indiana and nationally over the past year due to impacts from the Iran war. Indiana’s average diesel price was $6.84 per gallon as of Wednesday, compared to $3.69 a year ago, according to AAA data.
According to Post-Tribune archives, Braun last extended the gas tax holiday through Oct. 6.
Diesel price issues weren’t “quite as severe” when Braun first suspended the use tax in April and excise tax in May, he said Wednesday. The state can also afford to suspend its diesel rules, he added.
“It’s going to help farmers in a big way, and it’ll take very little away from our roads and bridges revenues that go into that area,” Braun said. “So the tradeoff isn’t as severe. We will continue to protect … state and local road funding use and spending of it, just like we did before.”
In a news release Wednesday, Braun said the renewal follows continued disruptions to global oil supply, “including recent Houthi drone attacks in Saudi Arabia that shut down the East-West Pipeline,” which accounts for 7% of global oil supply.
He also referenced Houthi military advances in Yemen that threaten oil shipments and the war between Russia and Ukraine that has “left Russia’s refining capacity near its lowest level this century.”
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According to Post-Tribune archives, Braun previously blamed former President Joe Biden, the war between Russia and Ukraine and the U.S. war with Iran for the gas price surge.
Indiana House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said in a statement Wednesday that he supports the governor’s diesel relief decision, but it’s “small, temporary relief.”
“It’ll help with the harvest this fall, but it barely touches the rising costs farmers face,” GiaQuinta added.
GiaQuinta said Indiana farmers have been “crushed” by two years of bad federal agricultural policy, including losing $607 million in exports from tariffs. Fertilizer prices spiked nearly 40% during planting season, his statement said, and are climbing again. Farm bankruptcies increased 46% last year, GiaQuinta said.
“A few months of relief won’t make up for a trade war that sent Indiana’s biggest soybean buyer to South America and a foreign war that hiked fertilizer prices,” he said. “Hoosier farmers deserve real, last solutions, and Indiana Republicans should be demanding them from Washington.”
According to Post-Tribune archives, the State Board of Finance agreed Sept. 15 to reimburse about $139 million to local governments for July losses in road tax revenue during the gas tax holiday. The State Comptroller’s office planned to distribute nearly $46.2 million to cities, towns and counties statewide — the third reimbursement since April.
Braun previously said he will seek statehouse approval to tap into Indiana’s $4 billion surplus to cover its losses.
On Wednesday, Braun said Indiana’s gas prices are averaging more than a dollar less than others nationwide.
“Compared to our neighbors to the west, that’s right about where it is,” he said. “It means a lot of people are buying gas if they live near Indiana by coming south, going north, going east or west.”
According to GasBuddy, on Wednesday, Meijer in Merrillville was selling gas for $3.75 per gallon, and a Gary Amstar on Harrison Street was at $3.52 per gallon. In Hammond, a Mobil station on Hohman Avenue was priced at $3.99 per gallon, and a Valparaiso Family Express on Morthland Drive was at $3.72 per gallon.
Indiana’s lowest price was $3.17 at a Richmond Love’s Travel Stop.
In New Buffalo, Michigan, a Shell gas station was at $4.68 per gallon, according to GasBuddy, while in Lansing, Illinois, a BP on Torrence Avenue was at $4.74 per gallon.
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