Gasoline Prices and Taxes, By State

[lazarus]

Updated to add links:

Gas prices are from http://198.6.95.31/sbsavg.asp.
Gas taxes are from http://www.lmoga.com/taxrates.htm.

If anyone has any more accurate sites, I'll be happy to take a look.

Thought everyone would find this interesting. I've always heard we have higher prices here in California because of our "liberal legislature" hiking the state taxes up. Turns out we have lower state gas taxes than Texas.

Here's all the states in order of gas prices as of today. Just for fun, I've also coloured them red and blue, depending on how they voted in 2000. Notice who gets the cheapest gas?

State Price (regular)
California 2.216
Hawaii 2.193
Nevada 2.166
Oregon 2.134
Washington 2.107
Arizona 2.040
Idaho 1.988
Alaska 1.963
Utah 1.960
Illinois 1.951
Wisconsin 1.949
New York 1.945
Montana 1.934
Michigan 1.924
North Dakota 1.901
Connecticut 1.898
Colorado 1.894
Nebraska 1.889
Rhode Island 1.888
Indiana 1.885
West Virginia 1.883
Wyoming 1.883
Ohio 1.881
D.C. 1.877
South Dakota 1.868
Minnesota 1.867
Kansas 1.866
Florida 1.860
Maine 1.848
New Mexico 1.847
Pennsylvania 1.843
Iowa 1.833
Massachusetts 1.831
Maryland 1.828
Delaware 1.816
Kentucky 1.813
Vermont 1.800
Missouri 1.798
Arkansas 1.793
New Hampshire 1.791
Mississippi 1.781
North Carolina 1.777
Oklahoma 1.775
Tennessee 1.775
Louisiana 1.771
Alabama 1.770
Virginia 1.754
Georgia 1.750
New Jersey 1.746
Texas 1.746
South Carolina 1.726


Here are the states listed by taxes The most interesting statistic? California, with the highest prices in the nation, has some of the lowest taxes. Lower than Texas, and only 4 cents higher than South Carolina. Wonder where that .50/gallon is going?

State State Tax (01/07/03)
Wisconsin 0.311
Rhode Island 0.300
New York 0.297
Montana 0.278
Pennsylvania 0.259
Connecticut 0.250
Idaho 0.250
Nebraska 0.246
Utah 0.245
Oregon 0.240
Maryland 0.235
North Carolina 0.234
Delaware 0.230
Kansas 0.230
Nevada 0.230
Washington 0.230
Colorado 0.220
Maine 0.220
Ohio 0.220
South Dakota 0.220
Arkansas 0.215
Massachusetts 0.215
North Dakota 0.210
West Virginia 0.205
Iowa 0.201
D.C. 0.200
Louisiana 0.200
Minnesota 0.200
Tennessee 0.200
Texas 0.200
Vermont 0.200
Illinois 0.190
Michigan 0.190
Alabama 0.180
Arizona 0.180
California 0.180
Indiana 0.180
Mississippi 0.180
New Hampshire 0.180
Virginia 0.175
Missouri 0.170
New Mexico 0.170
Oklahoma 0.170
Hawaii 0.160
South Carolina 0.160
Kentucky 0.150
New Jersey 0.145
Florida 0.141
Wyoming 0.140
Alaska 0.080
Georgia 0.008

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. The State of Illinois rate is not true for Chicago.

In the city, it is $2.15. Big difference from the state.

[Tatiana]

6. They are averaging downstate IL.

It's about 1.90 there, which is still ridiculous.

[lazarus]

11. it can be gotten cheaper, however

according to http://www.chicagogasprices.com/.

Speedways appear to be cheap, as low as 1.86.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. The places with the "cheap" gas...

are all 40 or more miles away from me. I am on the city's Far North Side, suburbs that I work in or visit are maybe $2.06. It's not worth it -- nor do I have the time -- to drive a couple hours to buy gas.

Thanks anyway, laz. :hi:

[lazarus]

20. Understood

I feel sorry for folks checking San Diego prices on that site. All the cheap places are Navy Exchange, and if you have no military ID, you get no "cheap" gas.

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. San Diego IS bad.

As the weather warms here, the prices will rise accordingly.

[bigbillhaywood]

17. Is that a Bobby Sands avatar? Cool.n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

19. Yes, it is.

love it also.

[JanMichael]

2. Quite the shocker, eh?

Nah, not really, they're sticking it to us.

[pnb]

24. No one is sticking it to anyone

The blue states will generally be more environmentally conscious and have larger populations. This will result in more refinery and additives in the gasoline, thus raising the prices. Not to mention the fact that many things cost more in urban areas.

[doni_georgia]

3. Just paid $1.93 a gallon for gas here in Metro Atlanta not 30 minutes ago

Georgia normally has some of the cheapest gas prices in the country. If we're still one of the cheapest this is criminal!

Send Rush packing
http://www.geocities.com/sendhimpacking/

[CityZen-X]

4. S.F. Bay Area

It's a brain and a leg, including a babies arm holding an apple!!

[DaveSZ]

7. LINk?

I'd like to pass this info on, but I need a linkomatic.

Thanks.

:P

[CityZen-X]

9. What Do You Want From Life?

As in the "Tubes!"

[OneTwentyoNine]

5. Its not 1.86 in Kansas....

In Wichita its 1.95 just about everywhere. I sure its the same up in KC. I haven't seen any prices near the 1.86 mark....

David

[lazarus]

10. I got the prices from

http://198.6.95.31/sbsavg.asp

Don't forget there's a whole lot more to Kansas than Wichita.

There's cheap gas in Wichita, however, according to http://www.wichitagasprices.com/. You can get it as cheap as 1.81.

Different sites offer different prices, however. http://www.kansasgasprices.com/ gives a higher average than the one I used. It's so variable, based on personal reporting, etc.

[OneTwentyoNine]

13. Well yeah,on Wednesday.....

That was the day prices went up ANOTHER .10 cents,and some stations held their prices till about the end of the day. The price now is 1.93-1.95 everywhere in Wichita. I'd bet I could drive 50-75 miles any direction and it would be as high if not higher.

I can guarantee you the average price per gallon in Kansas isn't 1.86. At best it would be in the 1.91-1.93 range.

Highest price ever in Kansas 1.86?!? LOL,its 1.95 1 mile from my house. Those are old numbers on the AAA site,its way off on the Wichita average.

David

[lazarus]

16. who said the highest ever was 1.86?

http://www.kansasgasprices.com/ shows the highest price right now is 2.09.

[SimpleMan]

8. Watch for gas prices to drop to around $1...

...sometime in early October.

IMO, they're just over charging us now to make up for the drop in prices they are planning for October. That way, they still get the same profits, and Bush looks good for the election.

[knight_of_the_star]

12. Just to mention it

The correlation in terms of who is paying the most appears to me to be more regional than political. The top 9 prices are in states that are either on the West Coast or in the vicinity of it. Still, this DOES prove that Bush is sticking it to California.

[lazarus]

true

although it's interesting that 13 of the cheapest 14 states are Red states, isn't it?

[Jacobin]

22. Urban areas are required to put additives in gasoline

to reduce pollution, whereas rural areas are not required to do so.
That's part of the reason for the price difference, but I don't know how much of the difference is attributable to that fact.

[leftbend]

14. It's more in Oregon

I paid $2.34 yesterday for premium and that was the cheapest I could find, some stations it is $2.45. Regular is about 10 cents cheaper, I noticed this morning that diesel was $2.13.

[lazarus]

15. I just did some spot checking

cross-checked it all with the http://www.________gasprices.com/ people, where you put in the state instead of a blank. Quite a few states are about .10 more expensive. Except Texas, of course.

[pop goes the weasel]

23. It should be cheap in Texas

And Louisiana, Alabama and anywhere else there are refineries. Damn, we put up with so much pollution, we ought to get something out of it. I live near oil fields, and the off-gassing is sometimes enough to make me sick. Believe me, if we have the gas slightly cheaper, we are paying for it out the nose in other ways.