One-sixth of what you’re paying for gas right now is state and federal taxes. Democrats argue Indiana could save you money by putting some of those taxes on hold.

Democratic legislators called for a gas tax suspension as part of the tax cut which passed in March when prices first went over four dollars a gallon. After a brief decline, prices are now about 30 cents a gallon higher than they were then. Democrats are calling for a special session to suspend the tax.

Indianapolis Representative Mitch Gore (D) gathered residents of his southside district at a gas station to hand out 20 15-dollar gas cards — an illustration, he says, of the relief a tax holiday would provide. That’s the equivalent of what you’d save on a 27-gallon purchase if Indiana suspended both its gas tax and the sales tax on gas.

Gore was one of 11 House Democrats to join Republicans in passing the tax cut, which will repeal a tax on utility bills starting in July. That will save the average household about six dollars a month. The package also cuts Indiana’s income tax next year, saving the average taxpayer another 44 dollars, with the prospect of further reductions in future years if the economy stays strong. Gore says both those changes are good ones but says people would begin benefiting from the gas tax holiday the moment it becomes law. And he argues the gas tax will reach all income levels because anyone with a car has to put gas in it.

In 2000, Governor Frank O’Bannon suspended the sales tax on gas when prices hit two dollars a gallon, using an “energy emergency” law passed after the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970s. But Governor Holcomb can’t take the same step, because legislators changed the law three years later so it applies only in case of a supply shortage. Unless Holcomb calls a special session, legislators can’t act on the gas tax until the newly elected General Assembly convenes in November.