Maryland is now joining
"I don't think it will cause a massive fiscal hole to the Transportation Trust Fund," said Maryland House Republican Leader Jason Buckel.
"I think it's something that can be repaired, as long as it's on a short-term basis. And we hope that by April, by May, what's going on in Iran has largely concluded."
The Democratic Governor's Office is opposed to the plan.
"Marylanders need real relief, not a 30-day gas tax suspension that would blow a $100 million hole in our transportation budget at the same time we're working to close Maryland's budget shortfall," said Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore.
The Georgia Senate has already passed legislation to suspend that state's fuel tax for 60 days.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is not supporting Democratic lawmakers calling for a temporary suspension.
DeSantis championed a gas tax holiday in 2022 during the Biden administration.
States collect fuel tax fees to service debt on revenue bonds used to finance transportation infrastructure.
Fuel tax revenue reductions are also swaying policy moves at the federal level.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to attach user fees to electric vehicles as a way to prop up the insolvent Highway Trust Fund.
The Highway Trust Fund received an $118 billion cash infusion for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which sunsets in September.
The Eno Center of Transportation has released an in-depth analysis of solving the trust fund's money problems with three possible solutions.
According to authors Jeff Davis, a senior fellow and Rebecca Higgins, vice president of policy, the General Fund could be tapped again which would postpone any hard decisions until the 2030's, the same time frame when Social Security and Medicare hit walls of insolvency.
Congress could also cut spending down to current revenues.
According to Eno, "The path for that is already impossible for the transit account on its own, which could be cut to zero new spending and still require four years of current transit account revenues just to pay out the obligations from prior years."
The third option includes the politically unpopular choice of raising federal fuel tax rates.
"Increasing the existing HTF revenues with an immediate 10 cent increase to the motor fuel taxes followed by gradual upward adjustments until they reach an increase of 17.8 cents per gallon by 2036 would close the solvency gap."
Eno also postulates that charging a vehicle registration fee of $120 on all vehicles would fill the shortfall. A VMT fee of 2.4 cents per mile fee could also work.
They cite a hypothetical $200 registration fee in EVs as "woefully inadequate to close the HTF revenue shortfall on its own."
The federal tax on motor fuels has remained at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, when it was raised from 14.1 cents per gallon.
