I’m skipping lemon of a state and its gas tax
Well, there goes the only reason to go to New Jersey! Starting Tuesday, the ultimate rite of passage — stopping for cheap gas in the Garden State on the way out of or back to the city — will be almost entirely eliminated as a new 23-cent-a-gallon gas tax kicks in.
In one instant, Jersey fuel prices — long the lowest on the East Coast — will go from Crazy Eddie insaaane to normal. The state’s politicians probably didn’t consider one major unexpected consequence of the new tax.
“I certainly don’t need to ever stop in New Jersey anymore,” said Oren Barzilay, who frequently drives between homes in Easton, Pa., and Queens.
“In Easton, I drive three minutes into Jersey for gas to save money. And I do the same thing when I leave the city,” he added, as he bought 8.78 gallons for his Smart Car at a Shell station in the so-called “Gasoline Alley” near the Holland Tunnel. “Cheap gas was the only reason to go to New Jersey.”
The same fuel will cost him $2.02 more on Tuesday.
“And my wages stay the same,” he added. His tone suggested I should call the new tax a “pain in the gas,” an impulse I briefly resisted.
Every New Yorker who loves a bargain — that is to say, every New Yorker — knows what Barzilay is talking about.
“I’ve come to New Jersey three times in the past week or so and I topped off every time,” said Theron Alford, who owns his own business. “That extra tax will come right out of my pocket.”
This being a column, I’ll segue seamlessly to the real victim here: me. For many years, the lowpriced gas in New Jersey has been the silver lining of cloudy visits to my suburban relatives, melancholic return trips from bad dealers in Atlantic City, and underwhelming concerts at that weird performing arts center in the middle of nowhere.
Once, after I broke up with a girl from Milford, I was depressed for a little while — until I got close to the Outerbridge, bought a full tank in Perth Amboy and never looked back.
New York City kids say “top off” before they can even say “Mommy.”
Still, many people I talked to on Monday weren’t even aware of the massive tax hike awaiting them on Tuesday.
Certainly, there are no signs at the pumps saying, “Fill up now because tomorrow ye die,” but the ignorance was a bit ironic: Most of us complain about politicians all the time, yet we barely notice when they ignore roads and bridges for so long that they have to flail around at the last minute and pass a punishing, regressive, house-on-fire tax for the first time since 1988.
“Well, the tax was always too low anyway,” said Brooklynite Max Benjamin, who filled up with his friend Richard Greenspan. Both said they support the new tax because it will help maintain roads.
Indeed, the tax will raise an estimated $1.23 billion a year for New Jersey, you know the state with the um, pristine and fully accountable government. Benjamin sensed my cynicism. “Are you asking me whether I trust Chris Christie to be scrupulously honest with a billion dollars in new tax revenue?” Benjamin said. Yes, I said, I was asking that very question. “Can you just put ‘dot dot dot to be continued’?” Other than Benjamin and Greenspan, just about everyone grumbled about the new tax except limo driver Jean-Pierre Njankou, which was pretty strange because he drives a massive SUV with a 65-gallon tank. “I’m from Cameroon so I just feel blessed to live in this country,” he said. “Plus, I deduct fuel costs from my taxes at the end of the year because it’s a business expense.” Wow, deducting it as a business expense, huh? This guy should run for President. IT WAS GOOD while it lasted. Starting Tuesday, drivers in New Jersey, and its bargainhunting border states, can say goodbye to cheap gas thanks to a legislative deal that raises the fuel tax by 23 cents. Gas in New Jersey had been the second-lowest in the nation until the state ran out of money to pay for transportation projects. Enter Gov. Chris Christie and the Democratic-led Legislature, which hammered out a deal to raise the gas tax 14.5 cents per gallon to 37.5 cents, the first gas tax hike since 1988. The raise makes Garden State gas the sixth most expensive in the country. In return, shoppers get a break on their sales tax. Under the deal, the state sales tax rate will drop in phases from the current 7% to 6.625% after January 2018. Although pump prices are going up, drivers will continue to cash in on one big benefit: Workers at New Jersey stations still pump the gas for you.