How to Lower NC’s Gas Price
North Carolina has the highest gas price in the lower 48 states. That’s the latest news on the gas price front. There’s a good reason that this is the case, too. North Carolina’s gas tax now sits at a whopping 27 cents per gallon. Unlike sales taxes, gasoline taxes are paid by the gallon, as opposed to a portion of the price. Well, that’s not entirely true either. The Democrats who control the North Carolina Legislature thought it was a good idea to design the taxes so that they would rise when the gas prices did. In other words, if something happens to drive up the cost of gas to the point that people are having trouble finding the money to buy gas, and SUVs are nearly impossible to sell, the Democrats of North Carolina will make sure that your prices go even HIGHER.
What if North Carolina abolished its gas price altogether? The average gas price in North Carolina would immediately drop from $3.07 to $2.80. Gas stations on the border of Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee would start to see a lot more cross-border traffic for gas (right now, that traffic goes into Virginia, not out of it). Along with the gas, customers would spend money on drinks, snacks, and other items. Those items would be taxable through the sales tax. North Carolina would see an immediate economic benefit from lower gas prices, and that would result in an increase in revenues from other taxes. It is not unreasonable to expect that the revenue lost from the abolition of the gas tax would be completely offset by other increases.
Unfortunately, Democrats don’t understand economics enough to do this kind of sensible thing. If they did, they wouldn’t be Democrats.
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Comments
There is no good reason liberals should be raising the gas tax. WE have some the highest gas tax in the country. WE the people of N.C.desire better from our elected officials! WE ARE NOT GETTING RESPONSIBILE LEADERSHIP IN RALEIGH! Stan Sharpe III
What is the website to protest the most recent gas tax? It’s a guy from Salisbury who is broadcasting his message, but I can’t remember the name of the site.
And some of the strangest about this — NC Democrats have been yelling for years about the people of North Carolina going to VA, TN, and GA to play the lottery, so they HAD to have a lottery. But when the people go over the border for gas, that’s just fine and no one need do anything about it.
Also, that tax based on the price of gas? It’s based on the average price over a previous period of time — ensuring that there will be no quick drops in price — we’ll be paying the higher gas taxes for the next year or so based on the price of wholesale gas NOW.