Gas Tax: Prices are so high no one will notice

The Washington gas tax will go up 1.5 cents tomorrow to make the tax 37.5 cents a gallon according to the Associated Press. DOL spokesman Brad Benfield was quoted saying the tax was not going to be “real noticeable” because it’s such a small fraction of the overall price of gas.

Yes it’s true that people probably won’t notice the extra 1.5 cents because gas prices are already so ridiculously high right now, but I think people would notice if there were no gas tax at all and we weren’t paying an extra 37.5 cents a gallon for gas. The gas tax had to be created because a horse’s ass (I-831 may not have passed Congress but it passed in my heart) Tim Eyman fought so successfully to lower the price of Washington state car tabs on vehicles and putting a cap on the price of tabs at $30 even instead of paying 2.2% of the value of your car. So now we have this regressive tax that is affecting a lot of people more than the Motor Vehicle Exise Tax.

For example, my car is valued at about $5,000. If the MVET were still around that would mean I would pay $110 a year in taxes. Those who had more valuable cars obviously would pay more. Now lets break down the gas tax. Since I hardly use my car any more lets say I fill up 3 times a month. Since my car holds 13 gallons that means I purchase around 39 gallons of gas each month. and 37.5 cents a gallon in taxes, I’m paying $14.63 a month or $175.50 a year in taxes. And that’s underestimating how much I drive. If I fill up four times a month that means I’m shelling out $234 a year – more than double what I would pay if Washington still had MVET.

And if Benfield thinks that the tax isn’t really that noticeable, according to the AAA the average price for a gallon of gas in Washington is $4.34. In case doing the math is too hard, the average price of gas would be $3.97 a gallon without the tax.

On a side note: Spokane has the lowest average of gas prices in Washington’s metro areas with an average of $4.09 a gallon. I like it here.