Gas taxes: We’re #10! (nationally)
As campaign season gears up, we’re hearing all about this tax being cut and that tax being cut. But one place we can’t seem to get any relief is at the gas pump.
According to the Tax Foundation, North Carolina had the TENTH highest gas tax burden in the United States (as of January 2017). Our 34.55 cents per gallon tax rate puts us just a whisker beneath California’s rate of 38.13 cents per gallon.
Our tax burden at the pump is TWICE that of South Carolina (16.75 cents per gallon), roughly ONE THIRD higher than that of Virginia (22.39 cents per gallon) and Tennessee (21.40 cents per gallon). 
You have to go to Florida (36.80 cents per gallon) to find a southern state with a higher tax burden at the pump.
Pennsylvania, at 58.20 cents per gallon, has the nation’s highest tax burden at the gas pump.
Gas prices hit us all hard. They can increase the cost of going places (work, vacation, out to dinner, etc.). They can make the cost of goods more expensive. (It costs more to transport them to market.)
The gas tax was supposed to pay for new roads and maintenance of existing ones. Yet, here we are paying through the nose for gas and the honorables are borrowing more money to PAY FOR ROADS.
yea I was surprised when driving into Virginia the other week that gas got cheaper
NC is starting to really suck and housing is so much more reasonable in other states… I look forward to exiting this state pretty soon
I’m not far behind ya Patrick – NC has become one of the most expensive States to live in, some States have “no income tax”, half the fuel tax, much much lower cost of living, to buy/rent, crime continues to rise, the population in NC has gotten out of control and the developers are building EVERYWHERE destroying forests, former crop fields, creating an ‘over-populated scene which raises crime in all areas, cities, suburbs, rural & country….I’ve been living here since 1969, moved away to another neighboring State in 97, had to return in 99’, took a Corp job, been here ever since, but not for much longer, gonna sell my house before the next R/E bubble bursts, market crash, (repeat of 2008, but little bit worse) then I’ll purchase another home…in another State!
Don’t forget what Moore and Berger are trying to do to us on our electric rates by pandering to the Big Solar and Big Wind special interests, and growing those corrupt boondoggles in our state.
If you want to see where our state is headed on electric rates due to solar and wind, just look at the Australian state of South Australia. Sixteen years ago, they had the lowest consumer electric rates in the world. Then the Labour Party came to power with a jihad mentality to build lots of wind and solar and heavily subsidize it. This year , Labour was finally kicked out of power, but not before they had made South Australia’s power grid dependent on expensive and unreliable wind and solar for half of its base load. Now thanks to that wind and solar binge, South Australia has the highest consumer electric rates in the world.
Tim Moore and Phil Berger have prostituted themselves and the GOP caucus to Big Solar and Big Wind the very same way that the Labour Party in South Australia did, and it is shameful. They are going directly against the state GOP platform.
When you look at the big picture, the gas tax in NC is not so bad. Our highway system is top notch (except in the Charlotte area), plenty of bypasses around towns and freeways everywhere.
I do wish the legislature would eliminate the sales tax on groceries and get the income tax to zero and stop building toll roads. But compared with a lot of other states, housing, grocery costs and car insurance premiums are a LOT lower in NC.
VA and SC have lower gas taxes, but the annual property tax on cars is more than double that of NC. FL has plenty of toll roads to make up for it’s lack of a property tax on cars, Car insurance is double in FL too!! and grocery prices are 25-40% higher. I lived in FL for 7 years, not going back!!!!
FL has no State income taxes!! That’s one plus for the Sunshine State!
LIved in FL 8 years and we are not going back either. Low wages and higher daily living costs. Yes, they have no state income tax, but what we pay here in state taxes more than makes up for the difference in cost of living – low wages in FL.
One of my biggest peeves is the lie about nine tenths when every body knows that is a ploy to gain another cent. I want to see truth in pricing, and that practice outlawed. Maybe we should file a lawsuit against the oil industry for lets say nine tenths of a trillion dollars and see how they like that.
Another consideration, NC is responsible for maintaining the second highest (California is number 1) number of road miles in the country.