With a record number of travelers hitting the road for the Fourth of July and the lowest gas prices in a decade, Washington state and Maryland plan to increase gas taxes on Friday. New Jersey has already approved a 23-cent per gallon increase earlier this week.
“The increases come as AAA projects the average price of $2.31 per gallon for the holiday weekend, the lowest since 2005,” USA Today’s Bart Jansen noted.
New Jersey’s gas tax had been consistently one of the nation’s lowest, and the increase (of 37.5 cents per gallon) would help decrease the state sales tax 1 percent by Thursday.
“Christie said the legislative package would provide the first statewide tax reduction since 1994, while still boosting dedicated funding for roads, bridges and transit systems,” Jansen said.
The state of Washington plans to increase the rate to 49.4 cents per gallon, a combination of two years’ worth of gas increases, and Maryland to 30.3 cents per gallon, a rate that has increased since 2013.
“Advocates of greater highway and bridge construction have urged an increase in the federal tax, but Congress has refused to raise the rate, and instead channeled funding in December for the latest highway bill from other streams such as Federal Reserve funds and petroleum reserves,” Jansen reported.
