Get Ready For NJ Gas Tax Hike of 23 Cents Per Gallon

TRENTON — New Jersey drivers are about to see their traditionally low gas prices rise — dramatically.

Drivers gassing up in New Jersey will have to pay 23 cents more per gallon under a deal reached Friday between Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic leaders.

The agreement establishes a $2 billion-per-year trust fund over eight years, along with cuts in the sales and estate taxes. It ends a three-month impasse over how to pay for road, bridge and transit work in the state.

Friday’s announcement all but resolves a major hurdle for Christie, whose approval rating in the state is at a record low and who is serving as a surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is in a tight race with Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“There’s compromise on all sides here,” Christie said. “I’m happy to be a governor now who is going to be able to say that we have responsibly financed (transportation) for a long period of time.”

The deal still must be passed through the Democrat-led Legislature, but Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Senate President Steve Sweeney said they’re confident they have the votes for the deal to pass. They’re planning a voting session Wednesday.

If it goes forward, it would be the first time since 1998 the state has raised its gas tax. It would also mean New Jersey no longer has the second-lowest fuel surcharge in the country, at 14.5 cents. New York and Pennsylvania still have higher gasoline taxes, Sweeney and Prieto said.

The gas-tax increase would send New Jersey’s current gas tax from second-lowest in the country, behind Alaska, to roughly equal that of Connecticut, which has the sixth-highest at 37.51 cents, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent tax-policy research organization.

In addition to the gas tax hike, the deal calls for cutting a handful of other taxes.

The sales tax would go from 7 percent to 6.875 percent by January and to 6.625 percent by July 2017. The legislation would also phase out New Jersey’s estate tax, changing the threshold from $675,000 to $2 million in 2017 and eliminating it completely in 2018.

The deal also includes raising the Earned In-come Tax Credit, which helps low-income residents, from 30 percent to 35 percent for the current tax year, as well as increasing the tax exclusion on retirement income over four years to $100,000 for joint filers. Veterans would get a personal exemption for state income taxes under the measure.

The impasse between Christie and lawmakers dates to late June and centered on what the governor called “tax fairness,” or cutting other taxes while raising the gas tax. He and Prieto reached a deal, but it was rejected by the Senate, which never voted on it.

 More information at
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/christie-announces-deal-to-raise-gas-tax-fund-road-projects/article_de0c756d-d643-5ab5-bb24-95525d4ce81e.html

 You’d have to spend $45,350 every year on taxable purchases to offset the gas tax hike.

http://nj1015.com/why-the-fairness-of-the-gas-tax-is-anything-but-jeff-does-the-math/