Drivers in Pennsylvania will see higher prices at the pump in the new year –– a tax increase of roughly 8 cents more a gallon.
The third increase in recent years, to be effective Jan. 1, comes as part of Act 89. That law, enacted in 2013, has been bringing in extra revenue to help the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation make major strides in tackling a large list of highway and bridge improvement needs, said PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick.
“This is improving roads and bridges in communities that are vital to local economies,” he said. “Act 89 also has meant municipalities across the state received an additional $125 million in state payments in 2016 to help them keep their roads in better shape.”
But local resident Laraine Meloni Freemer sees things differently.
“It is another one of Pa.’s way to drain more money from the working people who are trying to survive,” she told The Era via its Facebook page.
Kirkpatrick said the gas tax is wholesale, and there’s a challenge in predicting how much of the increase will be funneled to the consumers.
What Michelle Shembeda Wedge of Bradford knows is that she and her husband are on a tight budget, and she said it is disheartening to see items like gasoline prices increasing while their paychecks are remaining the same.
“We can only afford to put $25 worth of gas in our car every two weeks. We only go to the store when we absolutely need to go to save gas as it is,” she said.
She said she cannot afford to pay gas prices, calling them ridiculous.
“Why should our hard-earned money have to go just into our gas tanks so we can get to work or to the store for food?” she said. “Why is it when you head south their prices are cheaper for gas than it is here?”
For her part, Freemer said she traveled to North Carolina over Thanksgiving and found gas to be $2.06 there, and $1.85 in Virginia. Not surprisingly, she indicated, Pennsylvania had been the most expensive.
“We pay the most in gas tax and have the worst roads,” Freemer said. “We go down south at least six to seven times a year and gas is always way cheaper.”
But Kirkpatrick called such comparisons misleading because different states rely on several ways to pay for highway and bridges.
“In Pennsylvania, we have a user fee system,” he said. “Drivers pay some fees and fuel taxes that go into a dedicated fund that supports highway and bridges and also state police enforcement on that system.”
Some improvements have been to the state’s infrastructure already, he indicated. In fact, Kirkpatrick pointed out that structurally deficient bridges across the state have been reduced from 6,034 in 2008 to 3,662.
“We have the fifth largest state-maintained highway system and the third largest state-maintained bridge system,” he said. “That system is far larger than any of our surrounding states and is roughly the same size of the state-maintained systems of all of New York, New Jersey and the New England states combined. And Pennsylvania simply must shoulder the responsibility for keeping this system in as good a shape as possible.”
A significant investment is needed on nearly 1,900 miles of interstates in Pennsylvania, Kirkpatrick said, adding that a bulk of the system is roughly 50 years old and needs to be reconstructed. The price tag, however, is more than $5 million to rebuild one mile of interstate, he said.
But all the needed work will likely not persuade at least some drivers to pay a higher tax.
Both Bobbie Lynn and Greg Mcintyre, via The Era’s Facebook page, said they will stop purchasing gasoline in Pennsylvania and head to the M & M Junction of Limestone, N.Y., to fuel up.
For her part, Renee Hinman Jovenitti of Johnsonburg said that $1.28 extra won’t impact her.
“However, if I see a cheaper price, that’s where I’ll get my gas,” she said.
But prices at the pump are largely based on crude oil costs, according to AAA East Central Director of Legislative Affairs Theresa Podguski.
Last month’s agreement by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) has called to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day starting in January 2017.
And “markets have continued to react to the production cut agreement with crude oil prices hitting an 18 month high,” she said.
Podguski continued, “Retail prices have steadily increased following the news of the OPEC agreement, but the effectiveness of the deal and continued market impacts will hinge on all countries implementing the agreed to production levels. As a result, traders will continue to watch how OPEC and non-OPEC members move forward with the terms of the agreement starting in 2017.”
