John Wahl, one of the candidates for lieutenant governor, not only supports President Donald Trump’s idea of suspending the federal gas tax, but he thinks state lawmakers should have suspended Alabama’s gas tax.

“100% So I’m a big supporter, supporter of that,” Wahl said Monday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”

Trump was asked about the idea of suspending the federal gas tax earlier this month in the Oval Office and said, “we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time,” to provide Americans some relief at the gas pump.

The former ALGOP Chairman, who also has been endorsed by Trump in the election for lieutenant governor, said the Legislature missed an opportunity at the end of this year’s session.

“I kind of had this thought, but it was right at the end of regular session,” Wahl said, “and there wasn’t time to get it done, because I was actually going to try to find a member of the legislature to actually introduce it and get it across the finish line, and just wasn’t time practically, but that’s absolutely the kind of creative thinking that we need in Montgomery.”

Other state lawmakers have dismissed the idea of temporarily suspending Alabama’s gas tax, pointing instead to the relief Alabamians are seeing from the grocery tax holiday.

Wahl thinks Alabama should cut the grocery tax permanently while also suspending the gas tax.

“There are families across the state who are struggling to put food on the table, and when gas gets to $4 a gallon, it hurts, and I get it,” he explained. “Look, I’m driving around the state, and I’m not a wealthy man, so I feel that pain too. And yes, the grocery tax, and that’s another area we can cut, but 100% let’s, let’s give the people of Alabama a little bit of a break on their gas prices, at least till gas goes below $3 a gallon.”

When asked about the impact a potential gas tax cut would have on infrastructure projects across the state, Wahl said there are plenty of other areas of government that can be cut to make up the cost.

“Let’s actually be small government limited conservatives here,” he argued. “How about we cut some wasteful spending in other areas and allocate that money for infrastructure, so there’s a replacement, so roads don’t get hit at all.”

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

“I mean, look, I’m going to be brutally honest, if I don’t see another billboard telling me to take a COVID vaccine in my life paid for by taxpayers, I’m going to be just fine. I don’t need that,” he added. “So, there is money in government that is not being used for anything critical that we could allocate for our roads, and you know what? Once that money was moved out of areas that probably shouldn’t be spending money in that area. Let’s never move it back. Let’s then take that, that surplus that we find that we covered, covered the gas tax with, and let’s take that revenue and then cut it permanently and put that towards the tax relief, cutting the grocery tax or facing up state income tax.”

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