RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina Governor Mike Easley is shifting blame for a recent state gasoline tax increase to Washington, but he and other North Carolina Democrats are the ones responsible, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Ken Mehlman said, according to the Associated Press.
"What you're seeing here is a governor who has been unwilling to take on this issue of high gas prices," Mehlman said in a news conference. "We know that the governor, we know that the leadership in the state legislature can take concrete steps to reduce that right [image-nocss] now."
Mehlman, in Raleigh for state GOP fundraising events, lent his support to state Republicans who are still trying to pressure Democrats into a special session to roll back the tax increase. The state gasoline tax automatically rose 2.8 cents per gallon on January 1.
"One idea that everybody who has common sense ought to agree on is the last thing we need is higher gas taxes," Mehlman said. "Higher gas taxes are bad for families. They're bad for workers. It's bad for jobs."
The current state tax of 29.9 cents per gallon is among the nation's highest fuel excise taxes.
Democrats Easley, State House Speaker Jim Black and State Senate leader Marc Basnight largely have been cool to rolling back the tax, saying the benefit to motorists would be small compared to the widening gap between the amount of road projects that need funding and the money available to pay for them.
Easley wrote a letter (http://www.governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id=2774) to President Bush on Tuesday urging his administration to investigate oil company profits. The governor asked Bush to punish any wrongdoing, and "most important, take immediate steps to reverse this situation and lower the amount consumers pay to the oil companies."
Mehlman pointed to state and federal price-gouging laws already on the books to prosecute illegal windfalls.
Easley defended his letter through a spokesperson: "One company has already reported $36 billion in profits in the past year. Compare that to the 2.8-cent gas tax and let me know where the problem is."
The governor has set aside about $14 million to assist low-income residents to pay home heating bills and weatherization projects.
In a prepared statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean praised Easley for the Bush letter and said Mehlman "has a lot of nerve coming here and blaming North Carolina for high gas prices."
Mehlman declined to criticize Republicans in the Virginia Senate who are pushing a transportation spending plan that would eliminate the sales tax exemption on gasoline, forcing motorists to pay an estimated 9 cents more per gallon in four years. "I'm not telling what the state of Virginia should or should not do," he said. "But I do believe that at a time when families are paying more than they've ever paid before in energy, the last thing we should do is make government make that energy more expensive."
Mehlman praised the president's State of the Union message, in which Bush said the U.S. must break its dependence on Mideast oil in part through conservation and more research money toward biofuels and electric-gas hybrid cars.
Some State House Democrats had joined Republicans in asking for a special session, but backed off after Easley said no and Basnight and Black formed a committee to examine energy prices. The committee only has met once, in early January.
State Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R), one of more than 25 GOP legislators to attend the news conference, said Democratic leaders are failing to take into account the needs of consumers. "The people who pay the taxes are entitled to some consideration in this whole equation," he said.
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