It was encouraging to see Auburn city councilors Matt Smith and Thomas McNabb last week express some concern about a proposal to eliminate the gasoline sales tax cap.

The Cayuga County Legislature removed the same cap as part of its 2008 budget in order to increase revenue, a move we urged them not to make at the time. The majority of legislators, however, felt otherwise, citing in part their observation that they didn't see the cap having much of an effect on gas prices in the first place.

But those legislators should have known that the cap in place was never meant to create dramatically lower prices. It was merely a tool to chop a few pennies off of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, something that certainly can add up over time, especially for this county's high proportion of commuters.

We hope the city councilors, who will hold a Feb. 28 public hearing on the matter, are smarter than their colleagues in the Legislature.

And because the county has dropped its cap, Auburn councilors have a chance to encourage people to buy gas within city limits. An informal check of prices on Friday afternoon revealed that, for the most part, prices in Auburn were two to four cents cheaper than at the stations on major roadways in the surrounding towns.

We share the concern with many other people that prices in Cayuga County are higher compared with some other nearby cities such as Syracuse and Ithaca. Eliminating the sales tax cap certainly won't help that situation.

Then there's the argument that municipalities have suffered from the loss of tax revenue.

Sure, they could have made more money if the cap had not been in place, but the numbers show that overall sales tax revenues were actually up rather nicely in 2007.

We certainly hope Smith and McNabb stick to their original reactions on this proposal, and that they can convince their council colleagues to do the same in a show of support for the taxpayer.