A Koch Brothers backed conservative advocacy group will begin airing anti-gas tax ads on social media and at gas station video screens across the state this weekend ahead of next year's legislative session that may include a push to raise the tax to pay for road projects. Americans for Prosperity State Director John Kay says it’s no time for another tax.

“We just saw one a couple of months ago, in June. It’s just a transfer of wealth from individuals to the government, and all it is is the government saying we can spend your money better than you can.”

Last year, infrastructure advocates attempted to pass a 17 cent gas tax that would have raised half a billion dollars a year to pay for infrastructure. Kay says that kind of price hike on an everyday item would hurt.

“Just makes it more difficult to make ends meet. It would be hundreds of millions of dollars a year from people like myself, and voters in Louisiana.”

Those advocates say they’re considering a six-cent gas tax instead this year, with two cent hikes every other year after that.

Louisianans pay 38.4 cents per gallon in gas taxes total, 20 of which is state gas tax, one of the lower totals in the nation. Kay says that’s something to be lauded, and that makes up for the state’s high sales tax rates.

“Let’s give taxpayers a break somewhere, and if it’s at the pump, then that’s where it is. A low gas tax is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Pennsylvania leads the nation in state gas tax rates at 58.7 cents a gallon.

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