Gas Prices Went Up 10 Cents in Pa. on January 1st

Gas prices plummeted in 2014, but they’ve already gone up in Pennsylvania in the new year.

That’s due to a rise in the gas tax that added almost 10 cents per gallon in Pennsylvania in 2015.

In 2013, the legislature passed Act 89, which overhauled transportation funding. Before this year, the tax was capped — only the first $1.25 of gasoline prices per gallon was taxed. Now, the full price of gasoline at the pump is taxed.

This is meant as a way to tax the gas giants, but it’s going to hit drivers at the pump instead. “I can’t identify any example in any state in the United States where a tax on the wholesaler was not passed on… ultimately to the consumer,” Gasbuddy.com’s Gregg Laskoski told the York Dispatch.

Much like Philadelphia’s $2-a-pack cigarette tax has been sending smokers to the suburbs to save money, some drivers in Pennsylvania are expected to continue to buy gas in neighboring states. In Ohio, gas is 59 cents cheaper. (Ohio has easier access to cheaper Canadian crude oil.)

Drivers also pay an 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal tax in addition to the state tax, which is now 33 cents. The state gas tax also went up last year, which brought in 800 million.

[York Dispatch | Post-Gazette | CBS 3]