Dole Urges Gasoline Tax Hike Repeal to Ease Soaring Cost

Responding to consumer unhappiness over rising gasoline prices, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) on Friday urged President Clinton to join him in a move to repeal a gasoline tax hike of 4.3 cents per gallon imposed three years ago.

Officials at the White House and the Clinton reelection campaign did not directly rebuff Dole, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. But they did cite Dole’s own record of backing gasoline-tax increases over the years and suggested that he was merely grasping for an issue in hopes of energizing his campaign.

The Kansas Republican made his proposal in a letter to the president. “As I know you are aware, gasoline prices are careening out of control, and are diminishing the value of millions of American paychecks,” the letter said.

Campaigning this weekend for GOP candidates in California, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) also is expected to call for the gas tax repeal--the latest indication of the growing Republican Party effort to conduct a coordinated campaign against Clinton.

Dole’s letter, released late Friday, came after a tumultuous two weeks during which Republicans were frustrated by a well-planned and executed Democratic drive to seize the agenda from the GOP majority--particularly by the Democratic push for a vote to raise the minimum wage.

Gas prices have spiked since January by more than 32.3 cents per gallon throughout California and around the country, touching off grumbling among motorists as the summer vacation season approaches. These have been the sharpest increases since the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Oil industry officials blame the price increases on tight supplies and strong demand.

Crude oil prices have been rising nationally as traders hold lean inventories in the expectation that the United Nations might soon allow Iraq to resume exporting oil on a limited basis, which would drive down oil prices sharply. Also contributing to the recent increases was the abnormally cold winter, which generated a strong demand for heating oil.

In his letter, Dole recalled that the gas-tax increase was part of a huge deficit-reduction package approved during Clinton’s first year in office. Congress, then in the hands of Democrats, approved the package over the opposition of every Republican lawmaker.

“Since not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for the $265-billion tax increase in 1993, I am certain there will be strong Republican support for any repeal effort--which I believe will be bipartisan,” Dole wrote.

“I hope that we can work together to provide this relief for the driving public in a manner that will not increase the deficit, and in the same bipartisan spirit that has recently marked the successful enactment of the 1996 omnibus appropriations bill and the anti-terrorism bill.”

White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta responded that Clinton “has been very concerned about the rising price of gasoline in recent days for American motorists.”

But he added: “In an election year, it is hard to separate speeches from serious proposals. If Sen. Dole is serious, as we hope he is, he should accept the president’s invitation for immediate bipartisan negotiations to balance the budget, reform welfare and cut taxes.”

Dole’s letter to Clinton did not specify how he would offset the estimated $4.8 billion in lost revenue if the tax is repealed.

Clinton campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart said that Dole helped push through gasoline-tax increases in 1982 and 1990 that were signed by Republican presidents--tax hikes that raised the federal levy from 4 cents a gallon to 14.1 cents a gallon.

Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.