At 2.50/gallon the percentage of fed and state taxes comprises 11.5 percent of the price in MN.
That may not seem like much at first glance, but consider a 7.5% sales tax on something as simple as a doughnut would net the state darned near 10 cents (doughnuts used to be under a buck so not that long ago it would net the state about7 cents).
As soon as inflation kicks in taxes go up, prices on everything go up and buying power goes down. There are pols here in MN that want to make the state gas tax adjust for inflation and also add another 20 cents per gallon (this proposal would make taxes 28% of the cost of a gallon of gas at 2.50/gal and keep increasing when adjusted for inflation).
Actually, I think the article I looked at and quoted was incorrect. Fed tax per gallon of gasoline is 18.4 cents, MN state tax is 28.6 cents per gallon so a total of 47 cents per gallon of 2.50 per gallon is (47/250 * 100) or 18.8% of the whole, not 11.5%