The “gas tax holiday” is such a bad idea that we didn’t even want to honor it with a comment – but now that the New York State Senate has passed a bill to eliminate the state gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day and other states have begun lining up to join the fracas, it’s impossible to ignore.

So what are the region’s elected and agency officials saying about the gas tax holiday?

New Jersey

Governor Corzine tried to walk an awfully thin line to support Clinton, while gently panning the idea: “I want to say it’s not my favorite idea, but realistically she is paying for it and it is a three-month period,” Corzine said. Just the day before, Corzine stated that he hasn’t ruled out raising the gas tax to pay for transportation projects and fund the Transportation Trust Fund.

NJ DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri has been less equivocal, pointing out that a summer-long federal gas tax holiday would cost New Jersey $190 million in federal transportation aid allocated for bridge and roadway projects that mean 6,300 jobs.

At the federal level, Sen. Robert Menendez is co-sponsoring a gas tax holiday bill. He said, “Thank god we don’t have economists making necessary public policy.” The Senator even made the idea one of his campaign issues back in 2006. (So did Bob Dole in 1996.)

New York

We know Senator Clinton’s unfortunate position, but what about the rest?

Sen. Charles Schumer has jumped in with his senatorial colleague saying, “Big oil companies ought to pay for it. Take some of the money out of the royalties. Take some of the money out the windfall profits and reduce that gas tax.” (Of course, the wisdom of this approach has been discredited.)

Mayor Bloomberg had this to say: “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view. I don’t understand why you think there’s any merit to it whatsoever. We’re trying to discourage people from driving and we’re trying to end our energy dependence. We don’t do that — oh, and incidentally, we’re trying to have more money to build infrastructure. All three of those things go fly in the face of giving everybody $30 a year. The 30 bucks is not going to change anybody’s lifestyle. The billions of dollars that we would otherwise have in tax revenues can make a big difference as to what kind of a world we leave our children.”

Meanwhile, the New York State Senate has passed a bill suspending the state gas tax, led by Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island). On his website, under a picture advocating anti-idling laws to fight asthma from auto emissions, Lanza says he wants to “make gasoline more affordable during the summer traveling season.” The bill was co-sponsored by Long Island Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Freeport) and upstate Sen. Joseph Robach (R-Monroe).

State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno released this statement: “The vast majority of New Yorkers, especially Upstate, must rely on their cars to get to work and school and do not have any mass transit. The rising price of gas is costing them $10 to $20 more every time they fill up their tanks. The Senate, like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, support cutting gas taxes because it is the right thing to do to give New Yorkers relief.”

State Sen. Liz Kreuger (D-Manhattan): “I voted against this legislation because it is bad fiscal and environmental policy that will only result in windfall profits for oil companies and no real relief for consumers.”

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver isn’t letting the idea fly in the Assembly. He said: “There is absolutely no guarantee that tax savings would be passed on to consumers. In fact, I believe that oil companies will simply raise their prices to eliminate any cost savings for the public.”

Governor Paterson didn’t reject the proposal out of hand, but called it a “leap of faith” and said “This is something we could legislate, but not implement.”

Connecticut

Sen. Joe Lieberman has not said much on the record, but last month he co-sponsored an amendment to an unrelated transportation bill that would have instituted a federal gas tax holiday (the amendment, which was introduced by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl on behalf of Sen. John McCain, was later withdrawn).

In the Connecticut General Assembly, a last minute budget proposal put forward by Republicans included a state gas tax holiday, but the session thankfully timed out.