Gasoline taxes

[daugen]

I found this recently updated map very interesting.
Now I know why I drive ten miles over into NJ to refuel...lowest taxes in the Nation, still.
I wonder why?

wonder if there is something similar for road diesel.

Does the South typically charge less for taxes because they don't have the winter road destruction as up North, or
is this politically intentional?

 

[farmgirl19]

I can only answer for things here, as I never thought about it nationwide. Oklahoma has cheaper fuel, as a rule, because they don't have the state taxes on it that Texas does. My understanding, is that OK has a state income tax. Texas does not. So, OK doesn't hit with the huge taxes at the pump, but Texas does.

When I was dragging my travel trailer, showing dogs, it could be as much as a 25-30 cent/gallon difference, at certain times and locations. So, if one was in Oklahoma, they always topped off before they crossed the state line heading south.

 

[dave1949]

It would be complicated, but to be accurate about the amount of road tax revenue being collected, tolls would need to be included.

 

[daugen]

I hope the folk who are paying the highest taxes have the nicest roads at least.
A toll road revenue was always supposed to pay for maintenance and upgrades to that toll road, but then
that guaranteed collection capability caught the eyes of the governors and the rates sure went up. The PA Turnpike is a nasty bumpy
road in parts in this area and yet I still get to shell out ten bucks, likely twenty bucks if I went far enough on it, and I have never ever felt I was getting
my "money's worth" on the PA turnpike. The NJ turnpike doesn't have to deal with mountains so it's very different. Unfortunately the area near the turnpike up and down the state is like one big ugliness zone. So much concrete. But if I lived in California, which seems to love concrete, would I feel I got my money's worth there?
That state at least seems to be investing in a better future, not a patched up past.

Our roads locally are a mine zone. 'Craters everywhere. They will be out patching feverishly today, there were too many red cones on the roads...
The problem is that these are "cheap" roads, poorly constructed relative to say the autobahn, on the far other side of cost no object construction.
the roads don't have a good underbase, they heave and crack at the slightest winter change, and literally fall apart. I can't think of one road around here that does not need a full repaving job. Granted this is an unusual winter here, but if the roads had a deeper underbed, and were built properly and yes more expensively, they would not fall apart so easily. Instead we keep slathering layer and layer of temporary macadam on top. Build on the proverbial shifting sands.

When I go down to visit my older brother in Virginia, and have taken the back way down, through miles and miles of rolling hills, past one huge horse farm to the next,
the roads smooth as glass. Like riding on air...and I was green with envy. Boy those roads were nice there, and I bet they are further South too.

I just wish we would take the time to build/rebuild roads properly in this State instead of suffering the constant road interruptions due to repaving. Maybe it's the paving contractors who have Harrisburg in their pocket, who knows. And meanwhile, where is all this fuel tax money not being spent on better roads going?
That is the real question. Where's the beef?

 

[Diamondpilot]

I travel this country every day. Taxes have no bearing on road conditions.

Chris

 

[daugen]

I travel this country every day. Taxes have no bearing on road conditions.

Chris

more climate related? Are you driving mostly primary roads?

when fuel taxes far exceed their need for infrastructure maintenance and improvement,
it's just another government straight tax, hardest on the low income.
when you think of all the different ways we are taxed...
no don't, too taxing...

possible stupid question...are fuel taxes the same for gasoline as road diesel?
thanks.

 

[smstonypoint]

wonder if there is something similar for road diesel.

The American Petroleum Institute collects the data for both fuels, Here's the latest info for diesel:http://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-gas-overview/industry-economics/~/media/A375B82CC4184656A093C6168A1DD08E.pdf.

Steve






;

 

[smstonypoint]

possible stupid question...are fuel taxes the same for gasoline as road diesel?
thanks.

No. Here's a listing of gasoline and diesel taxes by state: http://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-gas-overview/industry-economics/~/media/Files/Statistics/StateMotorFuel_OnePagers.pdf. The federal excise tax is higher for diesel than gasoline. In addition, some (most?) states tax the two fuels differently.

Steve

 

[CHDinCT]

Connecticut:

Gasoline taxes: $67.70 (third highest after CA and just nosed out by NY)
Diesel taxes: $79.30 (highest in the nation)

And, we have an income tax of up to 6.7% of gross income (some small exclusions), plus a 6.35% sale tax, plus a lot of hidden taxes.

As for the fuel taxes, this is a great strategy for a small state that most interstate travelers can just drive through without stopping, or for those living near the MA or RI boarders. We can thank past governors, but our current "Dano" Malloy raised all the taxes right after his election in 2010. That was suppose to fix our fiscal problems, but it didn't since they don't know how to stop spending. Oh, and our roads are better than they were 20 years ago, but still suck compared to most surrounding states and are not even close to the roads down south (but lack of winter may account for that).

 

[dave1949]

more climate related? Are you driving mostly primary roads?

when fuel taxes far exceed their need for infrastructure maintenance and improvement,
it's just another government straight tax, hardest on the low income.
when you think of all the different ways we are taxed...
no don't, too taxing...

possible stupid question...are fuel taxes the same for gasoline as road diesel?
thanks.

I don't think road/fuel taxes cover the road expenditures. Toll roads may generate an excess, but effectively it gets spent on other roads.

Our rural roads are poor. Relatively large area, winter kills them, low and declining population densities. How many state fuel taxes are indexed to inflation?

Whatever. I just want the orange barrel concession. :laughing:

 

[dave1949]

Connecticut:

Gasoline taxes: $67.70 (third highest after CA and just nosed out by NY)
Diesel taxes: $79.30 (highest in the nation)

And, we have an income tax of up to 6.7% of gross income (some small exclusions), plus a 6.35% sale tax, plus a lot of hidden taxes.

As for the fuel taxes, this is a great strategy for a small state that most interstate travelers can just drive through without stopping, or for those living near the MA or RI boarders. We can thank past governors, but our current "Dano" Malloy raised all the taxes right after his election in 2010. That was suppose to fix our fiscal problems, but it didn't since they don't know how to stop spending. Oh, and our roads are better than they were 20 years ago, but still suck compared to most surrounding states and are not even close to the roads down south (but lack of winter may account for that).

It costs $2 to travel the 14 miles of I-95 in New Hampshire from Mass to Maine. That has to be a big money maker.

 

[daugen]

I think it was GM that announced they would make an LPG p/u later this year.
Any help in taxes there?
Use to be this wasn't an issue, now taxes are a serious percentage of the overall cost of fuel.
Just wondering if LPG might get some eco break in taxation. Of course, it is liquid petroleum gas...

Would seem if the government wants us to use less fuel and pollute the air less, which I think we are doing a pretty good job at improving,
then how about some incentives for a favored fuel? For commercial users anyway, not like any of us are going to go buy a personal LPG truck unless we had ecological reasons to do so. Curious what the cost per mile comparison is when everything is loaded in.

 

[smstonypoint]

Would seem if the government wants us to use less fuel and pollute the air less, which I think we are doing a pretty good job at improving,
then how about some incentives for a favored fuel? F.

Like ethanol?

Steve

 

[dave1949]

I think it was GM that announced they would make an LPG p/u later this year.
Any help in taxes there?
Use to be this wasn't an issue, now taxes are a serious percentage of the overall cost of fuel.
Just wondering if LPG might get some eco break in taxation. Of course, it is liquid petroleum gas...

Would seem if the government wants us to use less fuel and pollute the air less, which I think we are doing a pretty good job at improving,
then how about some incentives for a favored fuel? For commercial users anyway, not like any of us are going to go buy a personal LPG truck unless we had ecological reasons to do so. Curious what the cost per mile comparison is when everything is loaded in.

But compare current road use/reliance to the past. Roads enable a geographically dispersed economy, like head lettuce from Calif. on the East coast. Or, all that "just-in-time" manufacturing where trucks function as rolling warehouses.

 

[300UGUY]

Our roads really suck. One factor, besides weather, is the highest truck weight limits in the country, 130K. I think the next highest is 80K. Plus, weight limits aren't policed very well. Most of the time, the weigh scales are closed on the expressways. I've seen trucks with over 200K on them many times. Where I used to work, we had trailers break in half just coming up the bump from the road to the plant driveway.

Recently, with a declining population and high fuel costs, people here have been driving less, which means less money for the roads.

 

[300UGUY]

But compare current road use/reliance to the past. Roads enable a geographically dispersed economy, like head lettuce from Calif. on the East coast. Or, all that "just-in-time" manufacturing where trucks function as rolling warehouses.

The recent bad weather has slowed or even closed some auto plants in Michigan. Just in time is highly reliant on trucking, but sometimes they used airfreight to keep plants running. Cheap labor in Mexico makes it all possible.

 

[3930dave]

Up here, govts view fuel taxes the same way junkies view heroin; they only understand more.

Vancouver likes to scream about how Green they are, and layers on huge additional metro gasoline taxes. Allegedly for transit projects . At the same time, this is the same province that has left a provincial ferry sitting on the bottom of a sound, after hitting a 30+ mile long island. BC typically runs very large ferries, the amount of fuel and oil contamination from that one ferry will be huge.

Now the Ontario premier is squawking about the same nonsense for Toronto, but going one better - she plans to stick the whole province with additional 5-10 cents/litre "Transit" taxes. Ontario became a have-not province several years back (fed/provincial transfer balance), and is presently running astronomical deficits - coincidence ?

"Green" is a big deal, but it has nothing to do with the environment.

Trucking companies have been doing various pilot tests with Natgas here. Some teething issues on some trucks have been encountered, but those are fixable. The real problem is the Trucking Industry can't get a straight answer from Govt here regarding future Natgas tax policy. Making huge investements in new Natgas technology gains a company nothing, if the govt just turns around and yanks up transport taxes wrt. Natgas to ensure Tax Revenue neutrality.

I like Natgas as a fuel, as it is the cleanest hydrocarbon, and it is abundant in Can/USA. If the energy game was really about clean air, it would be the fuel to use.

Unfortunately, any mainstream energy products are way too tempting as a taxation target.

Rgds, D.

 

[lamarbur]

At one time I was an owner operator of tractor trailers,, In those day, the rear trailer door of Roadway and other companies posted a sign that read " this truck pays 7800.00 per year in road taxes". or similar amounts,, Somewhere along the line. I believe it was under Carters admin,, those signs were deemed illegal and were taken off the trailers,, What most people don't realize is trucks pay the tax at the pump, then another 16 cents up to 34 cents for every 6 miles driven that one didn't buy fuel in a given state,, In other words, if I drove from Ft Wayne Indiana to the border of Louisville this is roughly 240 miles. Divided by 6 this means I had to buy 40 gallon of fuel In Indiana. If I bought none, this is 40 times the 16 cents or $6.40 cents for one trip through, Through the 18 years I ran the road, my average quarterly payments including all states was a hair over three hundred dollars,, Granted I've been out of trucking for some time now,, back then the avg mileage was 6mpg. I don't believe it is much better now, although can be by one or two maybe. However, most states have increased this road tax considerably since I was involved, So old truckers always believed and I go along,, that the millions collected each month (COULD) keep roads in good condition, But when the federal gvt takes trucks road taxes then gives most to rail roads particularly on the east coast, no roads are repaired,, For years and years the feds have been robbing from this account and paying other things with it.

 

[schmism]

Use to be this wasn't an issue, now taxes are a serious percentage of the overall cost of fuel.

Care to clarify that statement, because as it stands it could not be any more factually incorrect.

1) fuel taxes arnt a set % of sale price like virtually all other taxes.
2) many fuel taxes have only risen 2-5 cent per gal in the past 3-5 yrs which based on the OP map is between 3-8% (IL hasnt changed in 20 years)
3) in that same 3-5 years we have seen fuel prices rise 100% or more at times.

Take my state of IL for example.

in the past 3-5 years we have seen gas prices range from 1.87 to 4.34 yet our gas tax hasnt changed in over 20 years.

so simple math says
at 1.87 57.5 is 30% tax
at 4.34 57.5 is 13% tax

so as you can see as the price of fuel as literally doubled over the past 5 years, the amount of tax we have paid per gal has become less and less

a serious percentage of the overall cost of fuel

.

This is why many states have struggled to pay for road repairs in the past 5+ years as the cost of putting road down has doubled, but the amount of tax brought in has at best stayed the same and in many places fallen.

This is also why many states want to move to a set % gas tax and drop the per gal tax so that the amount of tax collected increases with the cost of the fuel.
The other popular plan being floated is to move to a miles based tax as people with e-cars and high efficiency cars seem not to "pay there share". NOTE, this plan is popular with states, yet very unpopular with the people as it generally is implemented via GPS tracking.