New Jersey drivers soon will be paying an additional 23 cents in taxes when they fuel up at the pump.
State lawmakers on Friday approved the increase in the gasoline tax to 37 cents per gallon from 14.5 cents, which would give the state an additional $1.2 billion in annual revenue to fund the state’s expired transportation trust fund.
The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 24-14. The state Assembly then approved the proposal 44-27. Nine members of the Assembly abstained from voting.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie and legislative leaders brokered the bill, which also includes a reduction in the sales tax and a phaseout of the estate tax by 2018.
Christie had agreed to sign the proposal into law, which would likely go into effect Nov. 1, in time for holiday season travel.
The last time the Garden State raised the gas tax was in 1988. New Jersey residents have paid some of the lowest gas taxes over the past two and a half decades. While increasing, the tax still would be still lower than that in neighboring Pennsylvania and New York.
