The continual updates leading into the Memorial Day weekend about how expensive it will be to travel, which will continue from the 4th of July through Labor Day are already blaring on the airwaves. A precursor to this has been suggestions from both Albany and Washington to lower the cost of a gallon of gas by either reducing fuel taxes all together or at least creating a summer holiday.

The most blatantly political calls have come from both the presidential campaigns of senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., with their requests for a summer moratorium on the 18.4 cent a gallon federal gas tax. Their opponent, Senator Barrack Obama, retorted two weeks ago that this “...is a classic Washington gimmick...” He's right.

Instead of proposing and explaining the hard choices of a long term energy policy to deal with the nation's over dependence on oil, the other two candidates figured that this was an easy way to pander to the lowest common denominator of voter. In reality, according to Obama, “...the average driver would save 30 cents per day for a grand total of $28.” While we would all like to have an extra $28 in our pockets, the gimmick doesn't address the real need of this nation - to find alternatives to its addiction to oil. That may only come with outrage, which higher prices can create.

The proposal from Albany's Republicans is to reduce the state's 32 cents per gallon. Albany for years has been using taxes on fuel as a cash cow. The biggest obstacle to common sense being that we are not competitive with neighboring states, these taxes make it more expensive to do business in the Empire State, from agriculture and production to shipping and tourism.

The idea of bringing New York's tax policy into line with neighboring states is long overdue. The problem is that a single tax holiday or a plan that doesn't look at long-term fiscal consequences is more of Albany “doing business as usual.”

For example, one of the big down sides of a temporary moratorium is that the state could lose up to $500 million in revenue that is desperately needed to fix bridges and roads across the state. Curbing or cutting off this revenue stream, even for a bit, is poor public policy. If anything, New York#'s infrastructure needs more re-investment, not less.

Also, in both cases, it is not clear that any cuts, from Albany or Washington, will see real savings to those who visit the pump. There is no guarantee that the oil industry will not fill the void created by lower pump prices with a jump in their prices, which goes to their bottom line and not drivers.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com