There is no Pennsylvania gas tax suspension in effect. No bill suspending the tax has been signed into law, and the only active proposal is sitting in a Senate committee. For 2026, the state tax on gasoline remains 57.6 cents per gallon and the diesel tax remains 74.1 cents per gallon, which puts Pennsylvania among the highest-taxed fuel states in the country.1Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Motor Fuel Tax Rates
What You’re Paying Right Now
Every gallon of regular gasoline you buy in Pennsylvania carries 57.6 cents of state tax. Diesel carries 74.1 cents. There is also a separate 1.1-cent-per-gallon fee collected by the state Insurance Department for the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund, though that fee sits outside the main transportation account.1Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Motor Fuel Tax Rates
Federal excise tax adds another 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel. Those federal rates have not changed since 1993 and would remain in place regardless of any action the state took on its own tax.2Congress.gov. Suspension of the Federal Gas Tax: In Brief
The state tax is collected at the wholesale level. Distributors pay it when they sell or deliver fuel, and the amount is folded into the pump price rather than shown as a separate line. For comparison, the national average state gas tax is around 29 cents per gallon, roughly half of what Pennsylvania charges.
The Bill Currently on the Table
The most recent effort to pause the tax is Senate Bill 1264, introduced during the 2025–2026 session by Senator Lisa Boscola. The co-sponsorship memo is titled “Temporary Suspension of the Gas Tax,” and the bill proposes amending Title 75 to provide for “consumer gas tax relief and for Commonwealth indebtedness.” SB 1264 was referred to the Senate Transportation Committee on April 23, 2026, and has stayed there.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1264 2025-2026 Regular Session
Referral to committee is the earliest stage of the legislative process. Many bills never leave committee. Similar suspension proposals have surfaced in prior sessions during price spikes, and none has been enacted. The pattern repeats: prices climb, a bill drops, the fiscal math becomes uncomfortable, the bill stalls.
Why a Suspension Is Harder Than Just Passing a Bill
The Department of Revenue cannot stop collecting a tax the statute requires it to collect. A suspension needs a bill that amends Title 75, passes both the House and Senate, and gets the Governor’s signature. A veto would require a two-thirds override in each chamber.
The bigger obstacle is constitutional. Article VIII, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution locks fuel-tax revenue, along with motor vehicle registration fees and license taxes, into the construction, reconstruction, maintenance, and repair of public highways and bridges. The money cannot be spent on anything else, and legislators cannot rewrite that requirement with an ordinary vote.4Ballotpedia. Article VIII, Pennsylvania Constitution
The constitution allows short-term loans from the fund of up to eight months, once per year, repaid within a month of the next fiscal year. That narrow window was not built to absorb the sustained revenue loss a multi-month tax holiday would create.4Ballotpedia. Article VIII, Pennsylvania Constitution
The Motor License Fund also has commitments that do not pause when the tax does:
- PennDOT maintains roughly 40,000 miles of state roads and more than 25,000 bridges and culverts, largely on fuel-tax revenue.
- Approximately $250 million per year is transferred from the fund to the Pennsylvania State Police.
- Under Act 44 of 2007, the Turnpike Commission makes annual payments to PennDOT ($50 million per year starting in fiscal year 2023, running through 2057), with the Motor License Fund serving as a backstop for Turnpike Commission bonds.5PA Turnpike. Act 44 Plan
- Winter maintenance, salt, plowing, and emergency road repairs all draw from the same pool.
Any workable suspension bill would need a sunset clause specifying when the tax returns to its normal rate, and it would need to either identify replacement revenue for the fund or keep the suspension short enough that existing balances can cover the shortfall. Bond obligations backed by projected fuel-tax revenue don’t disappear during a holiday, and a sudden revenue gap can raise credit-rating concerns.
What You’d Actually Save if It Passed
The pump price would not drop by the full 57.6 cents. Research on state gas tax holidays consistently finds that retailers and wholesalers absorb part of the cut rather than passing all of it through to drivers. One widely cited study found that roughly 70 percent of a suspended tax showed up in lower pump prices, with about 30 percent staying in industry margins.2Congress.gov. Suspension of the Federal Gas Tax: In Brief
That’s not necessarily gouging. Station margins are thin, and supply chains adjust slowly to sudden tax changes. When a holiday ends and the tax snaps back, prices tend to rise quickly, sometimes briefly overshooting the pre-holiday level.
Applied to a 15-gallon fill-up, the math looks like this. If the entire 57.6 cents came off, you would save $8.64. With a 70 percent pass-through, the actual savings would land closer to $6 per fill-up. Over a year, a commuter driving 15,000 miles in a car averaging 25 miles per gallon pays roughly $346 in state gasoline tax. A three-month suspension with a 70 percent pass-through would put around $60 back in that driver’s pocket over the holiday period. Real money, but smaller than the headline rate suggests.
Diesel drivers, and the trucking companies that employ them, would see larger per-gallon effects because the diesel rate is higher, though the same pass-through discount would apply.
Electric Vehicles Aren’t Part of a Gas Tax Suspension
If you drive an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, you already pay an annual road-user charge in place of fuel taxes: $250 for a fully electric vehicle and $63 for a plug-in hybrid in 2026.6Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Road User Charge for Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles A gas tax suspension wouldn’t touch that fee unless the legislation specifically said so, and SB 1264’s stated scope is fuel-tax relief.
For gasoline and diesel drivers, the practical answer as of 2026 is straightforward. You’re paying the full state tax at the pump. A suspension bill exists but has not moved out of committee, the constitutional lockbox makes a clean pause difficult, and even a bill that clears every hurdle would likely deliver only a fraction of its stated rate as actual savings at the pump.