Gas Pump Relief
6/17/2007
With the price of the gasoline at an all time high, the people of Boys State are looking for some relief. Every gallon of gasoline the flows from you neighborhood gas pump is being taxed 30 cents. Suppose you pump 13 gallons of gasoline into your vehicle, you are paying $3.90 in state taxes.
Nationwide gas prices are at an all time high. Boys State cannot control the price per barrel of petroleum set by OPEC. What we can control is the state tax we pay. The United Stated Federal Government collects an 18.4 per gallon tax on every gallon of gasoline sold in the U.S. When you add this to the 30 cent tax paid per gallon in Boys State, citizens are paying 48.4 cents a gallon.
“I drive from Jeffersonville to Jefferson everyday for work. I drive over 60 miles a day just to get to work and back to support my family,” says Ronald Davison, resident of Croswell County. Davison continued, “I spend over $50 a week on gasoline. Two years ago I was spending around $30 a week. It’s simply too much. I figure I am spending over $1000 a year more now to drive to work than I did two years ago.”
The grassroots group, Citizens Needing Relief, maintain that lowering the state gas tax would bring much needed relief to Boys State citizens. A recent survey shows that only New York (31.9), Pennsylvania (31.1) and Wisconsin (32.1) have a higher state gasoline tax than Boys State.
Opponents maintain that the gasoline tax brings much needed revenue to Boys State in these tight economic times. Cutting the Boys State gasoline tax in half would cost the state approximately 35 to 40 million dollars in revenue.
With the upcoming elections there is no doubt this will be an issue that candidates will have to address.