It was nice while it lasted.
The Maryland gas tax holiday came to an end Saturday night, and that 36 cents a gallon drivers were saving for the last 30 days is once again being collected by the state.
At the Marathon gas station on River Road in Bethesda Sunday night, cars were lined up to fuel up – but the price for regular is now over $4 per gallon.
“I think they struggled right now to figure out what’s best for the state and I think we all just need to be grateful for what we got,” one driver said.
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But when the final figures came up on the pump, it was still a shock.
"It keeps going. It just keeps going!" she said.
There was some talk in Annapolis of extending the tax holiday another 60 days, but it wasn’t to be.
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The cost was steep: $100 million just for these past 30 days.
When the tax holiday first kicked in on March 18, drivers were loving it.
“Do you know how great of an impact that is to an Uber driver or taxi driver? That’s a rent money saved," one man said.
The gas tax holiday may be over in Maryland, but in Virginia, lawmakers are expecting to debate a gas tax holiday of their own as soon as Tuesday.
Driver Prashant Pradhan told News4 earlier this week that he’s a bit fed up with how much he’s shelling out for gas.
“It’s pretty bad, man – I have to pay like $5 for gas every day. I live like 40 minutes away,” he said. “I have a pretty small car and it costs almost $50 these days. And it’s rough because I gotta pay for other stuff like rent, electricity, wifi, all that stuff, you know.”
In Virginia, a new Democratic proposal would send a $50 or $100 check to registered car owners depending on how many cars a household owns. But if the governor gets his way, a gallon of gas in the commonwealth would drop by 26 cents.
