Posted on 01/27/2017 5:00:07 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The cost of driving in Pennsylvania is going up on two fronts in the new year.
First, the state tax on wholesale motor fuels will increase Jan. 1 — 8 cents for gasoline and nearly 11 cents for diesel fuel. Those costs are expected to be passed on to retail prices at the pump.
A week later, tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will increase for the ninth year in a row, this time by 6 percent. The change will increase the cost of a trip from Ohio to New Jersey from $48.90 to $51.85 for cash and from $34.93 to $37 for E-ZPass users, who received a discount on increases for several years to encourage more motorists to use the electronic payment system.
The state’s gasoline tax, the highest in the country, will increase from 50.3 cents a gallon to 58.2 cents a gallon while diesel goes from 64 cents a gallon to 74.7 cents.
After years of the capping the tax on the wholesale price of gasoline at $1.25 a gallon, the Legislature approved a complicated formula operated by the Department of Revenue to increase the cap gradually and adjust the tax as part of the Act 89 transportation funding bill in 2013. This year’s tax hike follows a negligible increase for 2015 and is expected to generate $299 million for the state Department of Transportation, $267 million for state highways and $32 million for local roads.
“It’s a significant increase,” said Bob Astor, commercial fuels representative for Shipley Energy, a statewide fuel supplier based in York.
“It’s not a horrible hit when the gas is about $2.50 a gallon, but it’s a challenge for working people any time there is an increase.”
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Thank you.....
REPUBLICANS
PA steals the gas tax money supposed to be used for road maintenance
Pennsy passed a Netflix tax, too. We’ve scratched PA off our list of states to retire to.
As a matter of principle, I won’t use the turnpike now, and since the tax started buy ALL my gas in MD, since it is only ~20 miles away. These idiots should know enough about economics to know that once you pass a certain threshold you will LOSE revenue as people become sufficiently motivated to avoid the tax. I would love to see what the actual change in revenue has been since they passed the tax, because the vast majority of the population live within ~30 miles of state lines where gas is a lot cheaper.
Pennsylvania makes ten times more money off a gallon of gas than Exxon/Mobil.
Exxon/Mobil has people drilling on rigs in the Arctic at 40 degrees F below zero to make their money. Pennsylvania votes themselves more money from their air conditioned offices in Harrisburg.
Pennsy passed a Netflix tax, too. We’ve scratched PA off our list of states to retire to.
*They did add a toll to I-65 for the new bridge to Indiana, but it’s ridiculously easy to bypass.
Pennsy passed a Netflix tax, too. We’ve scratched PA off our list of states to retire to.
Oh, and we just got our first Republican governor in many decades and the Republicans have a majority in BOTH state houses for the first time in almost a century AND IT IS A SUPERMAJORITY!
The tax increase, which is actually a gradual elimination of the limit on the oil receipts tax, is already not performing to expectations, since the price of oil plummeted a couple of years ago.
What an awful place it appears to be. Tex, tax, tax. Pay for gas and pay by the miles you drive. And the prsss thinks it’s great. More money to blow.
Politicians exempted of course from paying the tax and tolls themselves.
It’s why Tom Corbett was defeated by the current communist governor Tom Wolf. Some people think his loss was attributable to the Penn State fiasco, but it was really his idiot decision to raise gasoline taxes by 70% to pay for STINKING Philthadelphia mass transit.
The entire rest of the state has to always subsidize that $hit hole of a city.
PA for all its bad side has a few good sides:
1) The only state in the northeast where gun laws have gotten better in the last 30 years, not worse. If you look at Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia (though I think they came back)all have seen an erosion in gun rights since the 1980s. In PA the three day waiting period was eliminated, right of local governments to pass gun laws removed, right to carry approved, castle doctrine approved, the only restriction we have that is worse then the federal side is the requirement to pass all pistols sold through the PICS system. Remarkable considering what is happening around us.
2) PA does not have all of the nanny state laws the surrounding states have, that seem to be chocking the life out of any individual freedom.
So while the road tax issue is very irritating, on the whole PA is about the most livable state in the northeast and yes we put Trump over the edge on election night. (unlike New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode island and Massachusetts who voted for the witch)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.