Posted on 03/19/2012 4:58:31 PM PDT by matt04
Majority Democrats proposed a one-year cap Monday on the state's escalating wholesale fuel tax -- but set it to expire one day before one of the largest fuel tax increases in state history is set to kick in.
...
Republican legislative leaders, who have been advocating a cap on the state’s most volatile levy on gasoline for several months, agreed to support the proposal, but criticized Democrats for including an expiration date.
At New Haven harbor, the single-largest fuel importing site in Connecticut, the wholesale price of gasoline stood Monday at $3.18 per gallon, according to the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association. The Democrats’ proposal would calculate the tax based on an artificial ceiling of $3 per gallon whenever the actual wholesale price rises above that mark.
...
“As Connecticut families are having to tighten their belts, ... so, too, are we as a state,” said House Majority Leader J. Brendan Sharkey. “We don’t want to benefit from rising gas prices.”
...
Connecticut actually imposes two levies that affect gasoline prices: a fixed, 25-cents-per-gallon tax on retail transactions, and a 7 percent tax on gasoline and certain other fuels when they are distributed to local filling stations and other retailers.
But the state allows fuel distributors, who actually collect and pay the wholesale tax, to pass the cost along to station owners, and through them to motorists. This is part of a complicated system that effectively elevates the 7 percent levy to a rate of 7.53 percent, a system that the state Supreme Court affirmed in 1987.
And it’s been this wholesale tax -- which increased in the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007 -- that has driven overall gasoline prices in Connecticut higher than those in neighboring states.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctmirror.org ...
This is in Connecticut, thanks matt04.
No wonder the Dems are feeling the heat.
Gosh, I wonder if individuals in government are running the market at the same time for personal gain? /s
The lowest I have seen in CT recently is $3.99/gal. In north central CT, most stations are $4.01-6/gal.
Relax, gas prices will go lower this year. Figure about 3 months before 11/6/12.
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.