Carbondale Reporter

Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg) joined Republican House members at a news conference March 16 to address spiking gas prices.

“Middle-class families and hard-working people are being squeezed at the gas pump and at the grocery store,” he said. “It’s easy to point out the problems as every member standing with me today has heard from their constituents who are struggling to make ends meet. The question is what are we going to do about it?”

A way Illinois Republicans are working on the state’s gas prices is by addressing its tax on it.

“With gas prices continuing to skyrocket, we could easily see the average price of gas to be around five dollars per gallon,” Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) said on his website. “We would be providing relief at the pump now, and then preventing any future sales tax increase. We must pass emergency relief legislation before we leave this spring session. The government has no business capitalizing on a crisis at the expense of struggling families across the state. Money is always better left in the pockets of taxpayers who know how to spend their money better than the government does.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported motorists are paying 15% in taxes at the pump.

Dozens of Republicans are sponsoring House Bill 5723, which would make it so that the motor fuel retailers tax cannot go over 18 cents per gallon.

The bill was introduced on March 11 and had its first reading on March 15 before being referred to the Rules Committee.

Another Republican-backed bill, House Bill 5481 would amend the Use Tax Act, as well as other tax laws, to suspend the gas tax if the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index is more than 3% over the previous year. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg), Keith Wheeler (R-North Aurora), Amy Elik (R-Alton) and Tom Weber, (R-Fox Lake).

The bill was introduced on Jan. 28 and was referred to the Rules Committee, but has not been called or scheduled since.