There’s Good News & Bad News With New Jersey’s Gas Tax For 2021

Two words that unfortunately New Jersey residents are all too familiar with: Gas Tax.

Ughhh! Even just typing the words gives me heeby jeebies.

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But anyways, some news that JUST dropped regarding New Jersey's gas tax and there is there's good news AND bad news that comes with it.

So in October of 2020, gas tax in New jersey increased to 9.3 cents per gallon. It was a big hike and people were not happy.

But let's get to the happy part of this announcement - the good news is that the gas tax will be going DOWN this October!

Who knew us folk in New Jersey would ever get to experience the prices in our lives going down?!?! It's a nice feeling.

But that is not all.

The gas tax is going to decrease by a whopping 8.3 cents so we are basically ALMOST returning to the original gas tax we had before October of 2020.

The reason is because officials predicted that they would need to make up for lost profits which ended up not needing to happen!

“Because actual consumption in Fiscal Year 2021 was so closely in line with our projections made last August, coupled with the fact that consumption in the current fiscal year is projected to be above last fiscal year’s levels, our analysis of the formula dictates an 8.3 cent decrease this coming October,” state Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio said in a statement.

 

The bad news is that -- all in all - the gas tax will still be one cent higher than what we were originally paying and I don't see the number staying this low next year.

Here's what the numbers will look like beginning October 1st of 2021:

Gas Tax Per Gallon of Gasoline: 42.4 cents (down from 50.7 cents)

Gas Tax Per Gallon of Diesel: 49.4 cents (down from 57.7 cents)

In hindsight, one penny doesn't sound like a lot but when I hear that, "each penny on the tax typically figures out to about $50 million in revenue," I cringe. Our gas tax has risen over 36 cents since 2016....like what in the???

Shouldn't our bridges be made of gold with that kind of revenue?

Whether or not we make our total revenue for the year -- which is $2 billion-- is what dictates whether or not this gas tax goes up or down.

A big player here is the COVID-19 Pandemic because in 2020, there was a severe decline in the number of drivers on the road which also means drivers were getting gas much less often, if at all.

Revenue did return to about 85% in the Spring of 2020 but I am starting to doubt they will never return to their normal numbers.

Think about it.

A lot of people are putting their foot down: "Why do I need to commute into the office five days a week when the same job can be done from home?"

Enjoy the decrease now but if I am right, this number will be spiking again by next October.

Fingers crossed I'm wrong.

Take a look at the original article at NJ.com.