Ohio gas prices hit $5 a gallon in Columbus last week. That is not a minor inconvenience. That is a crisis.
According to GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan, Ohio saw the second-largest gas price increase in the nation last week — 94 cents per gallon in seven days. Families are feeling it. Truckers are feeling it. Small businesses are feeling it at the counter, not just the pump.
Rep. Ty Mathews, R-Findlay, pushed for a temporary suspension of Ohio's 38.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax. It won't solve everything, but it will show Ohioans that Columbus is paying attention.
Gov. DeWine called Mathews’ proposal a "grave disservice." We disagree. The grave disservice is asking people who are already drowning in property taxes, school levies, and rising costs to keep treading water while the state does nothing.
Ohioans have hit a wall. School levies keep appearing on ballots like Girl Scouts outside a grocery store selling Thin Mints and Samoas — we believe in the cause, but there is a limit to how many cookies one family can buy. Until Ohio resolves its property tax crisis, schools need to find another way. And right now, drivers need relief, not another bill.
The Iran conflict is driving global oil prices higher. This is a temporary problem that calls for a temporary fix. Three months. Thirty-eight cents a gallon. That is not radical — that is reasonable.
Every Ohioan except, apparently, the governor can see it.
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