Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has sent the legislature his proposal for imposing the state’s 6% sales tax on all motor fuel purchases — a plan that based on today’s prices could add nearly $40 in taxes every time a trucker fills up.
The sales tax would be phased in at 2% over each of the coming three years, and would be applied to the total purchase price minus the cost of state and federal fuel taxes.
However, the sales tax would not be based on diesel’s pump price. Rather, for tax purposes, the state would calculate an average fuel price every six months based on the previous six months’ average price for regular unleaded gasoline.
Using one fuel on which to calculate the average price “simplifies” the tax plan, O’Malley said in his proposal.
Currently, the Central Atlantic average price for regular unleaded gasoline is about $3.67 a gallon, meaning that — minus the state’s 23.5-cent gasoline tax and the federal government’s 18.4-cent levy — a trucker buying 200 gallons of diesel would see the sales tax applied to the purchase price of $650.20.
At 6%, the sales tax applied to that sum totals $39, which the trucker would have to pay on top of the federal diesel tax of 24.4 cents a gallon and Maryland’s diesel tax of 24.25 cents.
“If it passes, Maryland motor carriers will be in the ignominious position of being ranked number one in both tractor registration fees and diesel fuel taxes when compared with our bordering states,” said Louis Campion, president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association.
