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I posted the following two posts on slashdot.org concerning the full service issue in NJ. The summary is that NJ per gallon sales taxes are very low per gallon, but the cost of gasoline in NJ is about the same as it is in other states. The difference is the cost you pay for full service.
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New Jersey's gasoline tax is 14.5 cents/gallon. That's on the low side (and according to this [http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gas_taxes_by_state.html] makes it the fourth lowest in the nation.
Keep in mind however that a lot of New Jersey's roadways are financed through tolls--whereas most states finance highways through gasoline taxes.
Now let us take a look at this [http://www.nemw.org/gasprice.htm] which is a summary of gasoline price per gallon in summer 01 and summer 02. The average price per gallon in New Jersey is quite a lot higher than most states (except those which are far from refineries, like your Wyoming and Alaska or require a different fuel mix, like California, which is also far from refineries.) Indeed, Connecticut asseses a tax which is some 20 cents higher than New Jersey's tax, but the cost in CT for a gallon of gas is about the same as it is in NJ. Delaware's tax is nearly ten cents higher than NJ's, but most of the time you'll get gas there for about ten cents cheaper. I use CT and DE as states to compare to because they are close by, often with similar population densities. NY would make a bad comparison because a lot of NY is not the NYC metro area, which I suspect has a bit of a inflation effect on gas prices for the tri-state area.)
My hypothesis is that since all stations in NJ have to pump gas for you, the price for that service is rolled into the cost of the gasoline, and the statistics do seem to indicate that gas in NJ, given it's pretty low sales tax, is more expensive than it is in other states.
Having said all that, I think I would be a little sad if NJ got rid of full service--it's one of those unique things that make NJ what it is. Like the Sopranos, non-photo driver licenses (which they are sadly getting rid of) and...umm...damn. I guess that's it.
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second post to correct my first post's errors :-)
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Now if I actually was paying attention, I woulda noticed that the gas price statistics do not include taxes.
However, my argument doesn't change.
And here you can see [http://198.6.95.31/sbsavg.asp] a state by state gas average with taxes included. The effect is smaller, but still there.
Finally, I forgot to add, one of the other advantages to NJ full service is that we can watch people from there fumble over filling their cars up when they leave NJ. :-)
posted by 64.233.222...
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