MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Alabama’s gas tax is currently 28 cents a gallon. That’s 10 cents more than before the Rebuild Alabama Act took effect in 2019 to raise money for infrastructure.

Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Sheffield) proposed repealing part of that act that could automatically increase the gas tax by one cent every other year after 2023.

“Raising taxes should be painful, deliberate and somebody should have to vote on it,” Stutts said.

But as for providing relief at the pump right now, he says lawmakers haven’t talked about it.

“I think that is a legitimate idea, but I have not heard any discussion about that, but I think that would be something that would be a very popular idea,” Stutts said.

Rep. Sam Jones (D-Mobile) says now might not be the time as the state looks to Washington for potential cuts in the federal gas tax.

“I think most people are waiting to see what’s going to happen at the national level in terms of adjusting the gas tax,” Jones said.

Jones also says any suspension of the gas tax now should come from the governor, who supported the gas tax increase for the Rebuild Alabama Act.

“I think that’s a proposal that probably can be considered sometime in the future and I think the lead on that would probably be the governor coming to the legislature proposing just as she proposed the gas tax,” Jones said.

CBS42 has reached out to the governor’s office for comment on the gas tax but has not heard back.

So far, legislators in Michigan and Pennsylvania have brought forth proposals to halt their gas taxes, and Georgia’s governor has announced plans to suspend theirs.