A proposed two-month suspension of the 24-cent state gas tax to help motorists deal with soaring prices got mixed reviews at the State House Wednesday. Here, Connor O’Neil of Manchester filled up at the Mobil station on Brown Avenue near the airport late last month.
A proposed two-month suspension of the 24-cent state gas tax to help motorists deal with soaring prices got mixed reviews at the State House Wednesday. Here, Connor O’Neil of Manchester filled up at the Mobil station on Brown Avenue near the airport late last month.
An ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee slamming Sen. Maggie Hassan’s record on the gas tax was pulled from local cable stations Thursday, over a misstatement about the impact Hassan’s policy had on prices.
With Hassan pushing in recent months for a temporary suspension of the federal gas tax, her Republican opponents have been critical of her record on energy, including a gas tax increase she approved while governor of New Hampshire.
So when Hassan’s campaign released an ad earlier this month touting her push to lower the gas tax, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — the arm of the Republican party that coordinates Senate races — hit back with an ad of its own.
The ad brings up Hassan’s approval of a gas tax increase in 2014, which added 4.2 cents to the existing 18-cent-per-gallon state tax for a total of a 22-cent-per gallon tax. But the ad misstated the impact of the gas tax increase — while the tax increased, the overall price of gas went down, not up, in 2014.
A graphic in the NRSC ad claimed that prices went up 23%, citing a short New Hampshire Public Radio story that did not make that claim. The gas tax, not the price of gas, increased just over 23%.
Attorneys for Hassan’s campaign demanded the ad be taken down, calling the ad “blatantly false” in a letter to television station managers.
“This claim is demonstrably false,” Hassan’s attorneys wrote. “This is not a question of interpretation; NRSC just plainly misstates a statistic that is readily available in legislation and mainstream news reporting.”
Gas prices in New Hampshire fell in 2014, even after the gas tax took effect, from more than $3.60 in the spring of 2014, down to $2.71 per gallon in mid-December that year.
The NRSC has replaced the ad with another version, but a spokesman for the NRSC said he believed the issue was semantic.
"A tax increase is a price increase and the fact that Maggie Hassan doesn't understand that is why she will lose in November," said spokesman T.W. Arrighi.
