States’ Dirty Little Gasoline Tax Secrets Voila Houdini

It’s small comfort several states are “temporarily” rolling back their gasoline taxes that account for a good chunk of our surging pump prices. The dirty little secret is that COUNTY, LOCAL & FED taxes will be as oppressive as ever.

Of course, there’s 50 states so it can be daunting to even try and nail down exactly how much of a gallon of gas is attributable to the sundry taxes at a given station. And, good luck trying to go state by state, county by county or city by city to determine exactly who’s charging how much where. No surprise the worst-case scenario, says the Sacramento Bee, is for Californians who not only pay all of the above but get indirectly taxed by environmental laws which require a “unique blend of gasoline” to supposedly help thwart global warming cause by everyone else on the planet. In addition, California has a bunch of progressive “control” laws that also jack up the cost of doing business in the state and, therefore, the pump prices, e.g., via a higher minimum wage law.

But, back to the dirty little secret we may never be able to expose any way since the politicians calling the shots are better than Houdini in hiding it. Suffice it to say the national average for fed and state taxes on a gallon of gas is at least 57 cents plus whatever your gougers at the county & city level add on. And, maybe avoid relocating to Sweet Home Virginia if the goal is to avoid inflating pump pain since, as NBC News reported, a “tricky” 2021 reform law “expanded” the state’s additional “regional” gas tax by imposing it state-wide; the new scheme also imposed higher regional rates & tied future gas tax(es) hikes to INFLATION. Voila! Higher gasoline taxes in the State for Lovers than ever. Ingenious, no?

Davd Soul