Gasoline taxes

[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.

 

[CHDinCT]

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.

Yeah, I've been through those tolls a few times, though not recently. CT eliminated tolls about 20 years ago after a horrific crash at one toll station where an 18 wheeler plowed into the back of a van and killed 6 people IIRC. I think he fell asleep but not sure. Anyway, there's talk now of bringing them back, probably because they know interstate travelers don't stop in CT to buy gas, and also with EZ-pass, it's too easy to assess it now. Can't wait until I have to pay $50 each way to run to Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

 

[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.