Legislative Issues

All Members

 Governor O’Malley’s Gas Tax Bill HB1515 will come up for hearing on Friday March 15^th (this Friday). This bill would be bad for all dealers and shops that depend on miles driven for repair work but will be devastating to stations in Maryland that are located on a boarder to another state. I think it will reach far into those boarders and I hate to think about commuters. With in two years MD dealers will be 28 cents above VA, 21.5 Cents in Northern VA Transportation district, 14.5 above D.C.,15.2 Above Del., 6 above PA, and 3.5 above WVA. N.J. is not a boarder but 23.7 above N.J.

This bill is indexed to the Consumer Price Index and will be a forever bill in that it will keep going up. This bill could be a going out of business bill for boarder stations and a severe hit to others. We have teamed up with your suppliers and have stickers for pumps for everyone. Keep your petiitions going and call your legislators and say no to HB1515 and companion Bill SB1054 which is not scheduled yet. Urge your customers to email or call their legislators and voice their opinion on the bills. Keep sending petitions to the office here @301-390- 3161 . Time is short ,so act now. We can affect these bills, if we stand together.

We will have a Rally at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis on Friday before the bill is heard, we will have “no gas tax” signs and have speakers. I can not tell you how much this could affect the legislation and it is imparative that we have full participation from our members, customers ,friends and anyone else you can drag down on Friday. The rally wiil start at 11:30 and go to 12:30 and hearing starts at 1pm.