The New Jersey Department of the Treasury announced today that the state’s gas tax rate will increase by 2.6 cents per gallon beginning January 1 as a result of the new law signed earlier this year which gradually raises the State’s Highway Fuel Cap from Fiscal Year 2025 through Fiscal Year 2029.
“Based on our review of the consumption data, combined with the requirement to meet the new statutory target, we have determined that the new formula dictates a 2.6 cent increase this coming January,” said State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio.
“We are pleased that this dedicated funding stream continues to provide billions of dollars across the State to support our critical transportation infrastructure needs,” she added.
New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) program is required to provide nearly $11 billion over five years to support critical infrastructure improvements to the State’s roadways and bridges. In order to ensure the State has the funds necessary to support these projects, the law dictates that the Petroleum Products Gross Receipt Tax (PPGRT) rate must be adjusted accordingly to generate enough revenue to meet the statutory Highway Fuel Cap for that fiscal year.
What is generally called the “gas tax” or the “highway fuels tax” is actually two separate taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel – the Motor Fuels Tax and the PPGRT.
Under the formula explicitly outlined in Chapter 7, the PPGRT rate will increase on January 1, 2025 from 31.8 cents to 34.4 cents for gasoline and from 35.8 cents to 38.4 cents for diesel fuel. When combined with the Motor Fuels Tax, which is fixed at 10.5 cents for gasoline and 13.5 cents for diesel fuel, the total tax rates that motorists will pay for gasoline and diesel fuel will be 44.9 cents and 51.9 cents, respectively.
The New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to maintain and renovate the state’s roads, bridges and rail infrastructure, was established by the Legislature in 1984 and has since been reauthorized eight times.
The last reauthorization in 2016, under the Christie administration, occurred after the previous authorization had expired, halting projects until a new agreement could be reached.
Heaven forbid for the politicians to use their brains. Oh sorry I used those two words in the same sentence, politicians and brains.
Way back when we had low taxes on fuel, people driving through New Jersey always made sure to fill up in New Jersey as opposed to in the surrounding states because they were going to save upwards of $0.50 a gallon. That adds up!
When Governor Krispy Kreme was in office he decided to come up with this crazy thing of raising the gas tax and then also including in the law, if the state didn’t get as much in revenue, the tax rate would go up again. Well guess what happened, people stopped filling up in New Jersey because it wasn’t worth the agmas nefesh of driving that extra whatever it was amount of miles just to get into New Jersey to fill up and save a nice amount on a tank full. So of course, revenue from gasoline went down because people were filling up in Pennsylvania and New York where the prices were a lot closer per gallon, in fact there are many places in New York, not too far away from New Jersey where you can get gas for almost the same price as New Jersey!
Just think of those truck drivers who put in 200 gallons at a shot. That’s a lot of money saved! It’s $100 right there if it’s 50 cents less per gallon. New Jersey lost all that revenue because truck driver is now don’t have to come into New Jersey for gas. They don’t have to fill up here. They could fill up in New York many many places for not that much more than in New Jersey, the savings they would have for getting into New Jersey is not worth the headache or the hassle or the worry.
The simple idea is drop the gas taxes and people will start filling up again in New Jersey. The revenue will go up! Happens all the time whenever taxes are dropped. People spend more money.
100% correct .You forgot to mention , all the revenue lost because of the tolls ,besides the gas .
NJ has the highest per mile cost for road construction, maybe they should work on cutting those costs instead of stealing the money from us.