"Connecticut's biggest gas price gouger is government itself"

Chris Powell, Managing Editor of the Journal Inquirer, has a fascinating piece on the factors contributing to the price of gasoline in the state. Consider it a "must read," especially in light of the recent reduction in the price of gas throughout the state.

The article begins:

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal strode before the television cameras in triumph the other day as he announced that six gasoline stations would pay the state $45,000 in fines for price gouging during the gasoline price spike after Hurricane Katrina last year. "Connecticut has zero tolerance for price gouging," the attorney general proclaimed.


But that proclamation is empty in light of the investigative reporting that was done soon thereafter by the Journal Inquirer's state Capitol bureau chief, Keith Phaneuf. He found that Michael Fox of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America is right: The biggest price gouger in Connecticut is state government itself.

Later, the piece has the following startling revelation:

The gross receipts tax now stands as a hidden 6.3 percent sales tax on oil products and is scheduled to increase to 7 percent next July and 7.5 percent in July 2008. It is adding about 17 cents to the price of every gallon of gas at the pump, on top of the posted state excise tax of 25 cents. With the federal excise tax at 18.4 cents, Connecticut motorists pay about 60.4 cents per gallon in gas taxes, effectively a sales tax of about 20 percent, the second highest gas tax burden in the country, behind only California.

Check it out.