ATLANTA - For many, the cost of gasoline is an ongoing gripe.

"I don't see how people manage," said Bertha Allen, a Savannah resident who said she has been seeing gasoline prices fluctuate between $2.60 and $2.85 a gallon recently. "It gets worse and worse, and it's not going down."

Drivers' frustration has been fueling campaign fodder and calls from Democrats for Gov. Sonny Perdue to cut the state's gasoline taxes again.

A study released Monday from a national research group, however, shows that though temporary gas tax holidays are becoming more popular with lawmakers, the measures are bad economic policies.

The Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation pointed to Georgia's decision last year to suspend its 7.5 cents-a-gallon excise tax and 4 percent sales tax on gasoline during September, after Hurricane Katrina disrupted supplies and prices jumped.

Three other states have used gas tax holidays since 2000, and 41 states have weighed or implemented measures to suspend, cap or freeze gas taxes, according to the research group.

"Gas tax holidays are intended to lower gas prices at the pump," the report stated. "However, they may be a less efficient tool for achieving this than is widely believed by lawmakers."

A wiser course is to look at permanent tax relief, even if it is a smaller amount than what is offered during a temporary suspension, said William Ahern, the communications director for the Tax Foundation.

"We think that these short-lived temporary holidays are really more about creating political announcements," he said. "We favor tax policies that either give relief or tax people broadly."

With the state's motor fuel taxes being recalculated recently and rising slightly, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Cathy Cox and Mark Taylor have both said the state should suspend the increase to help drivers.

Mr. Perdue said he would continue to watch prices.

"We will consider and look at that at the appropriate time," he said. "The same people who were calling it a gimmick last year are calling for me to do it this year."

Georgia is not the only state in which gas taxes have entered the political campaigns.

In Illinois, for example, Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka has suggested eliminating the state's tax when gasoline rises above $2.50 a gallon.

"There would probably be 40 pages of regulations," Mr. Ahern said about those kinds of ideas. "They would do better just to cut a quarter of a cent off the rate. We are favoring the more modest, permanent, broad-based relief."

Reach Vicky Eckenrode at (404) 681-1701 or vicky.eckenrode@morris.com.