GREENVILLE, N.C. - A gas tax increase now has us all paying more at the pump.
Many of you might have seen those prices jump at least eight cents shortly after midnight on January 1st.
That's when the state gas tax increase went into effect.
"I thought it was going down under $3.00 and all of a sudden, boom," said William Worthington of Greenville, “What causes that?"
Worthington's question echoes that which many of you had on Facebook. Carolyn Howell said, "Gas in Ayden Sunday $3.24. Gas in Ayden today $3.33.”
So it answer it, here's how the gas tax works.
Every six months, the state takes the base tax price of 17.5 cents a gallon plus 7 percent of the average weighted wholesale price that gas sold for. This last tax increase was based on the six-month average of April through September of 2011 and you get 38.9 cents.
That's close to four cents more than last year.
Then add the federal tax of 18.4 cents plus another one-quarter of a cent for inspection fees and you've got a final grand total of 58.55 cents a gallon.
"I think it's too high. I think it needs to come down," said Carolyn Lloyd of Greenville.
The gas we buy is made up of 10 percent ethanol. So you have to add another four-and-a-half cents because a federal ethanol tax break that also expired January 1st. With that, you'll have the full eight cent increase.
"It makes you almost not want to go anywhere," said Worthington.
Most of the state gas tax goes to road construction and maintenance. But not enough to change Joseph Haranzo's opinion who said, "The roads in NC are still in disrepair; constant ripples running through recently paved roads is unacceptable; patch work or not."
And when we asked if now was the right time for a tax increase, Jon-Michael Acevedo said, "Now is as good as any. You can't stop prices from going up. It's just the way of the market."
The General Assembly did vote to cap the gas tax at 35 cents which would have saved us close to four cents but the Senate adjourned before reviewing the bill, which allowed the tax to increase at the onset of the new year.
The new gas tax places North Carolina as the fifth highest state for gas taxes. Connecticut, California, Hawaii and New York are the four states with higher gas tax rates.
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