North Carolina lawmakers will vote Wednesday, Oct. 7, on suspending the state's 41-cent-per-gallon gas tax as regular fuel tops $4 statewide.

Regular gas in North Carolina averaged $4.03 per gallon as of Monday, Oct. 5, up from $2.82 a year ago, according to AAA. Diesel averaged $6.01 per gallon, up from $3.49 a year ago. The special session is set to convene at noon, with votes expected that afternoon, according to WBTV.

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall announced the session Saturday, Oct. 3, saying families and farmers need immediate relief, according to WCNC. Gas prices have risen steadily since February, when the Iran conflict began driving up global fuel costs.

What the suspension would mean

State Rep. Grant Campbell, R-District 83, told WSOC-TV that lawmakers will consider suspending the tax for six weeks to a few months. Surplus state revenue would replace the lost road-project funding during the pause.

Campbell said drivers should expect a price drop of about 30 cents per gallon, taking effect seven to 10 days after a suspension begins. The full 41-cent tax would not translate directly to a 41-cent savings at the pump. A separate 18.4-cent federal gas tax would remain in place.

North Carolina's gas tax is the 10th-highest in the country, according to the Tax Foundation. The N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) collected $2.6 billion from fuel taxes in the 2024-25 fiscal year, nearly a third of its total revenue, Axios Raleigh reported.

Republican lawmakers pointed to the state's reserves to cover the gap. North Carolina's rainy day fund held $3.77 billion as of last week, with an additional $1.34 billion in the Stabilization and Inflation Reserve and a $1 billion unearmarked budget surplus, according to WFAE.

Democrats criticize timing

The session comes roughly one month before the November elections.

Democratic state Senate leader Sydney Batch accused Republican leaders of acting only when it became politically convenient, saying they could have moved months ago when prices first started climbing, according to WBTV. Batch called the proposal desperate and said it would not deliver lasting relief for working families, according to WCNC.

State Sen. Caleb Theodros, D-District 41, told WSOC-TV the session would not address the root cause. "Address the actual source of this, which is a war in Iran right now," Theodros said. "This is not something state policymakers are going to move policy on."

Alexandra Forter Sirota, executive director of the N.C. Budget & Tax Center, told Axios Raleigh that without gas tax revenue, lawmakers would likely have to tap funding meant for education and health care.

Farmers feeling the hit

The diesel price spike is hitting North Carolina farms hard. Wilson County farmer Pender Sharp told Axios Raleigh that a truckload of red-dyed diesel cost him $44,000 last week. A year ago, the same load cost $18,000.

Gov. Josh Stein on Sept. 30 directed the N.C. Department of Revenue to waive penalties for highway use of red-dyed diesel through Dec. 31, allowing farmers to stretch their off-road fuel supplies during fall harvest. In his letter to Revenue Secretary McKinley Wooten, Stein called agriculture the state's biggest industry, employing one in five North Carolinians and generating $117 billion in annual economic activity.

About a third of U.S. states have pursued some form of fuel-tax relief since the Iran conflict began, according to Newsweek. Georgia and Ohio have already enacted temporary suspensions. Draft legislation for North Carolina's proposal had not been publicly released as of Monday.