Taxes Vary

For John, BLUF:  Glad to not live in Tax Heavy New York.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Driving South on Saturday we stopped at Armonk, New York.  Stayed at La Quinta, which we have found to be a clean and reasonably priced motel.  That said, the Breakfast used to be a tad better, being in the restaurant, as opposed to the lobby, as it is now.  I have never seen the pool open.

But, this is about the price of gas.  From the motel it is out to the highway and a left and a right and there is a gas station on the right with a nice Quick Mart.  Strangely, this time it no longer had a major brand name on the gas station.  It is now a minor chain.  You can see the price of regular in this photo:

$4.299, or $4.30 a gallon.  That is more than we pay up in the Lowell area.

However, on the Jersey Turnpike, last Rest Area southbound (Clara Barton)

It is near a dollar less (86¢):

Different states tax gas at different rates.  It was no surprise that Gubernatorial Candidate Martha Coakley didn't know the amount of state tax on gas.♠  She guessed 10¢.  The answer is 24¢.  The total, with Federal taxes, is 41.9¢.  These were number for back in May of this year, when Ms Coakley missed the mark.

Then, of course there is the issue of pegging the Mass Gas Tax to the rate of inflation (up).  This is another case of Legislators shirking their duties by moving unpopular actions over to bureaucrats or automatic actions.  I am in support of the recent tax increase—we need the money to improve our roads.♥  What I strongly oppose is Legislators shirking their duty.  You should also.  Go to the polls in November and support the initiative to stop linking gas taxes to inflation.

By the way, while we are called "Taxachusetts", back in 2011 we were 11th in terms of state and local taxes.  Not great, but not evil.  And regarding the Federal taxes we pay, we get back about 86¢ for every dollar paid.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  She once wiffed on the softball question about the Team Kurt Schilling played for.
♥  I was driving around in Northern Virginia yesterday, going into DC, and the construction I say, improving and widening roads that are better than what we have in Eastern Massachusetts today, seemed more than what I have actually seen between Lowell and Situate.  We are definitely lagging in this area.  Investment in the Big Dig didn't help.