State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) dismissed the idea of temporarily suspending Alabama’s gas tax, but believes there’s a good chance that lawmakers will permanently suspend the state grocery tax in the not too distant future.

Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law that temporarily suspends the state’s 2% grocery tax for the next two months. The measure was part of a legislative package introduced by State Rep. James Lomax (R-Huntsville) and Orr.

Orr discussed the issue Friday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”

“Well, it’s very difficult to do in the state of Alabama, the locals can do it when they tack on some local taxes, of course. That would be their prerogative,” Orr said. “We…in the legislature, we cut the grocery tax to zero at the state level, so that was our attempt to make up for the high cost of gasoline for a period of time, and I firmly believe that if revenues sold firm, we’ll be looking at trying to totally eliminate the grocery tax in the next quadrennium.”

Other political leaders, including former Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party John Wahl, have been calling for the grocery tax to be eliminated permanently.

Orr thinks cutting the grocery tax gives more relief to taxpayers in the Yellowhammer State.

“It’s relief to taxpayers, people, you know, people, people got to eat, and that certainly affects everyone, and it’s widespread on the gas tax,” Orr explained. “You’ve been on 65 lately, and what a problem that is. Huntsville has a lot of needs. There is a lot of, there are a lot of transportation needs and infrastructure needs around the state, because we’re growing, and that’s certainly a good thing, but as electrical cars come online more and more, and cars get more efficient, of course. That gas goes down, the sale of gas and the gas tax goes down.”

The Alabama Legislature passed a gas tax hike in 2019 as a part of its “Rebuild Alabama” initiative.

“[W]e got to be very careful with our infrastructure and transportation dollars, but when we can help, like the grocery tax, I think you know it’s certainly on the table,” he added. “We’ve got that done on a temporary basis, the last 2% on that on the tax, and then I would think again revenues being staying solid, that’s on the table for the next quadrennium.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee