Craig Calls For Passage Of Repeal Of Automatic Gas Tax Hikes

Upton, MA …Today Shawn Craig, Republican candidate for State Representative and Iraq war veteran, called for the immediate passage of the repeal of the automatic gas tax hike legislation—House 3847.

Tomorrow is the deadline for the House and Senate to pass H.3847.  If it is not passed then the ballot campaign has to collect another 11,000 signatures in roughly 4 weeks to be placed on the November ballot.

“No tax should increase automatically.  We elect a legislature to take these votes.  By allowing the gas tax to be tied to inflation legislators are abdicating their responsibilities.  It’s taxation without representation,” said Craig.

“This tax hurts the working people of Massachusetts the most.  It not only adds to commuter costs but it will significantly add to our grocery bills due to elevated transportation costs,” said Craig.

Last summer the legislature passed a tax package that included the tech tax, a gas tax hike, an increase in taxes on cigarettes and an indexing of the gas tax to inflation.  Even if there is deflation the tax will not decrease because the law puts a floor on the level of taxation.

If the gas tax had been tied to inflation the last time the legislature increased the tax, drivers would be paying 85 cents per gallon in state taxes.  With the federal tax it would be a total of $1.03 on every gallon.

“With legislators getting per diems, I think it is completely unfair to force automatic tax hikes on people,” added Craig.

Craig is a member of the Upton Finance Committee and is the liaison to the Mendon Upton Regional School District.  He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Mendon-Upton Multi-Board Task Force.  In addition, he is a member of the VFW and Upton Men’s Club.

Professionally, Craig has 18 years of private sector experience with the majority spent within the financial service industry.  He worked for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) for 8.5 years where he investigated broker-dealers for compliance with federal securities laws and FINRA rules and regulations.  One investigation of which he was the team lead resulted in the discovery of fraud and misrepresentation at a firm located in Braintree, MA.  Craig drafted a referral whereby the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission became engaged along with the FBI.  The firm’s owner was detained October 2, 2012 and sentenced in April 2013 to 17 years in federal prison plus 3 years supervised probation and $9 million in restitution. Craig left FINRA in 2013 to start a consulting business focused on helping small broker-dealers.

Craig earned his B.A. from Roanoke College, where he double majored in International Relations and Business, and an M.S. in Finance from Suffolk University in Boston.