Archive: Opinions

This week I returned from visits to family in Minnesota and Florida.  When I travel I am always keen to see how their gas prices compare to ours.  Just before I left in mid-November gas prices across the country plummeted -- although I use the term relatively because I still remember the glory days when gas was under a dollar.  I was surprised to see our local gas station closer to the three dollar mark than the four.  But I didn't have time to bask in our local lower prices, because they were so much lower in the other two states.

According to the GasBuddy Web site, New York has the third highest average gas prices of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  Alaska and hawaii have the highest, but I can understand that.  After all, what must it cost to get a truck full of gasoline to Hawaii?!

The conventional wisdom is that the major part of the difference in gas prices is state taxes.  According to the The American Petroleum Institute the The federal gasoline tax is a constant 18.4 cents a gallon no matter where in the United States you buy gas.  The price of gas does vary because of delivery costs, and the rest of the difference is in the chunk a particular state takes.

With all its emissions concerns you would expect fossil fuel to cost the most in California, and that state does take a whopping 70.87 cents per gallon, the highest in the nation.  New York takes the second highest, 67.97 cents per gallon.  Yet gas prices in California were lower than in New York this week, with the average Californian paying $3.042 per gallon while New Yorkers shelled out $3.140.  Minnesota is averaging    $2.610 right now, and Florida $2.748.

With gas that low I couldn't help thinking how great it would be to live in Minneapolis until I remembered how cold I was.  On southern road trips South Carolina almost always has the best gas prices (currently $2.502 per gallon on average).  I was surprised to learn that Missouri currently averages the lowest ($2.430 per gallon).

I went to college in Missouri, and I will never forget almost getting hit by a bus because of low gas prices.  In those days there was a gas war, with every brand undercutting its competitors and giving away dishes and silverware and cups with the Saint Louis Blues logo on them.  My roommate and I supplied our entire kitchen with those gas station giveaways!  On this one day I was driving on a four lane road when I spied a gas station across the street advertising ten cents per gallon.  I swerved in front of a city bus and pulled in next to the tank.  I didn't get any dishes that day, but oh boy! was I pleased with myself for getting my gas at a dime per gallon!

As far as New York is concerned, here is my issue: I always thought that gas taxes were targeted at maintaining and improving improving our roads and their accompanying infrastructure.  But have you noticed the state roads in our county?  I was driving home from Ithaca College on 96B one day early this year when my tire hit a pothole the size of Rhode Island.  I actually felt the bottom of my car hit the road before it bounced out and I continued, miraculously unharmed and with my wheel in shock but still attached, down the hill.  And what about that bump near Lansing Pizzaria that the state has been working on for months?  The most effective piece of that project was the sign that read, 'Bump'.  Because it was accurate.  There was a bump.  Then they fixed it.  And there was still a bump.  I think they are done fixing it now.  There is a little bump.

So if New York has the third most expensive gasoline, and its gas tax is the second largest (even Hawaii takes less than half of what New York gets in gas tax money), why do we get a 'bump' sign?  Which I will say was a bonus here in Lansing, since there was no warning when I hit that mini-Grand Canyon on 96B.  Maybe I was missing something, but the roads in Minnesota and Florida didn't seem so bad.  You could argue that Florida weather doesn't promote pot holes, but the same can't be said for Minnesota.  Little ice devils with pickaxes work full time all winter long in Minnesota!  I saw some there two weeks ago.

Here, unfortunately, we have little tax devils working year 'round.  It may not give you gas, but it certainly gives me indigestion.

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