CNN’s headline says, “As gas goes up, driving goes down.” Really? Huh, never saw that coming.
So… how are your state and federal gas tax revenues?
Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less—that’s 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it “the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.” Records have been kept since 1942.
Dear Dom,
You ask about taxes. Have yours gone up proportionally to the price of gas, or have they stagnated? I think they may have been at one level while the price of gas has increased nearly threefold.
Good observation about the taxes. If gas tax revenues decline, we will see if our politicians are motivated for their care of Mother Earth or the $$$$.
Actually several years ago, our congressman, Pete Stark, mentioned increasing the gas tax to $5/gallon. Like to see our congress-critters try that one out during an election year.
Here in California (along with NY as the two states with the highest combined gas tax rates) I’m currently paying $4.37-$4.49/gallon… and approx. 75-cents is fed/state/local taxes & fees (a lot more than the oil company’s profits per gallon).
And I don’t have much choice with the “not driving as much” option since approx. 90% of my weekly driving mileage is going back & forth to work. Add food shopping, laundry, going to church, etc. … leaves me with only 5% of my driving is “casual/discretionary”.