Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot down calls for a federal gas tax holiday on Thursday, and her announcement was cold water on the designs of two New Jersey Democrats.
“Suspending the gas tax will give New Jersey families immediate and direct relief,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D, NJ-11) told NJ Spotlight News back in early March. The two-term Congresswoman’s district got considerably bluer in redistricting, but she isn’t considered “safe” if a red wave does materialize in November.
Congressman Donald Norcross’s First District also backed a gas tax holiday.
“We need to help working families with high gas prices now, just like they did through the pandemic,” said Norcoss in his own statement. “That’s why I support a gas tax holiday to save New Jerseyans +60 cents/gallon, and continuing to support highway & transportation trusts through federal aid.”
Norcross is considered a close Pelosi ally; the speaker has visited South Jersey to personally fundraise for the machine boss’s brother. Sherrill voted “present” rather than for Pelosi in January 2021, one of only five House Democrats to decline to support the incumbent.
What’s clear: now as ever, the New Jersey Democrat House delegation has almost no clout in D.C. Whether it’s the awful return we get on our tax dollars or the unresolved SALT deduction debate, the Garden State’s elected members rarely perform. What’s the point of having Dem reps in a Dem-run town if they don’t have any real influence?
Btw: the federal gas tax is 18.3 cents per gallon for regular unleaded and 24.3 cents for diesel.
