CROWN POINT | Democrat Jill Long Thompson brought her campaign to cap sales taxes on fuel to Northwest Indiana on Wednesday.
Thompson, who is running for governor, held a news conference on Crown Point's downtown square less than a week before the May 6 primary. She proposes the state stop charging sales tax on the portion of fuel that exceeds $2.75 per gallon.
"At prices today, that could save Hoosier motorists as much as 7 cents a gallon. The estimate of the aggregate savings would be around $150 million a year," she said. "We need tax reform in this state."
Thompson said her plan wouldn't affect other federal and state taxes on motor fuels.
Her opponent, Jim Schellinger, issued a statement Wednesday saying he would fight rising fuel costs by working with the Indiana congressional delegation to "pass a federal windfall profits tax to prevent big oil companies from making excess profits and push to receive a greater share of the federal gas taxes Hoosiers already pay."
Thompson is a former congresswoman and undersecretary of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Schellinger is an Indianapolis architect.
