CHAPTER 399
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
OBJECTING TO THE PROPOSAL BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE THE FEDERAL GASOLINE TAX.
WHEREAS, it has been proposed that the one and one-half cent a gallon Federal tax on gasoline be doubled to three cents a gallon as one of the means of raising additional revenue; and
WHEREAS, this Federal gasoline tax at its present rate now costs the people of Delaware more than one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) each year; and
WHEREAS, the proposed doubling of the Federal gasoline tax rate would make a total State and Federal tax of eight cents on every gallon of gasoline purchased in Delaware; and
WHEREAS, the Federal government entered the field of gasoline taxation in 1932 on a temporary, emergency basis, later increased the tax by fifty per cent to its present rate, and has tended to turn attention to this levy each time there appeared to be a need for additional revenue; and
WHEREAS, while there is an imperative need for increased Federal revenue on some scale to meet the demands of the national defense emergency, heavily-taxed gasoline is not a suitable subject for this additional taxation; and
WHEREAS, an increase in the Federal gasoline tax would make the total tax on this product so high as to jeopardize a major source of state revenue, impair vital transportation services, add to the cost of all kinds of consumer goods, spur inflationary price trends and threaten a condition of diminishing returns for both State and Federal gasoline tax revenues; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the State of Delaware, the House of Representatives concurring therein; that this One Hundred and Sixteenth General Assembly of the State of Delaware does hereby petition the Congress of the United States to refrain from increasing the Federal gasoline tax and to find some more equitable and economically feasible means of raising this portion of needed revenue; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and, the President of the Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Finance Committee of the Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to Honorable John J. Williams and Honorable J. Allen Frear, Jr., Senators from the State of Delaware in the United States Senate, and to Honorable J. Caleb Boggs, our Representative in Congress from the State of Delaware, urging them to oppose the unreasonable proposal to double the Federal gasoline tax and to strive for the substitution of a fair and sound method of raising this revenue.
Approved May 1, 1951.