Thursday, April 27, 2006

State gas taxes

New York has the highest gas taxes in the country: 44.5 cents per gallon. This is on top of the nationwide federal tax of 18.4 cents for a total of 62.9 cents per gallon. [August 2005 data from the American Petroleum Institute.]

New Jersey's state gas taxes of 14.5 cents per gallon are 30 cents less than New York's. And it shows at the pump. Which is why I fill up every time I find myself across the Hudson.

Here are the data:


Click on image to enlarge in separate window (which is still a bit hard to read).
Or for a clearer version, see the original pdf from the American Petroleum Institute.

On a related note, despite the media and political hype, gas prices have been fairly flat in real-dollar terms since 1979. At least that's the case for this guy who has kept track of all the gas he's purchased for 26 years and adjusted it for the consumer price index.

(Hat tips: Betsy's Page and Instapundit.)