Thanks to a statutory formula based on wholesale fuel prices in the state each July, diesel taxes have taken a tumble in Connecticut.
Two years ago, truckers in the Nutmeg State paid 54.5 cents-per-gallon in diesel taxes. Last year, that rate was 50.3 cents-per-gallon. Now it’s 41.7 cents-per-gallon, lower than it was in 2010 before the rate began its gradual climb to a high of 54.9 cents-per-gallon in 2013.
Not that Joe Sculley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut is celebrating.
“MTAC and its members knew that the tax rate would be decreasing, and it was certainly welcome news,” Sculley told Transport Topics. “Even with a significant decrease, CT’s diesel tax rate is still the fourth-highest in the country.”
Pennsylvania is easily the highest at 65.1 cents-per-gallon. Washington is next at 49.4 cents-per-gallon. New York is just ahead of Connecticut at 41.9 cents-per-gallon. In contrast, Alaska (12.75), Oklahoma (14.0), Mississippi (16.4), South Carolina (16.75), Missouri (17.31), New Jersey (17.5) and Tennessee (18.4) all levy diesel taxes of less than 20 cents-per-gallon.
“I hope that this change and the corresponding changes in revenue received by the state force an examination of how Connecticut spends its fuel tax revenue,” said Sculley, who regularly laments the diversion of road user-generated revenues that go to the state’s general fund instead of to transportation purposes.
Connecticut’s Legislature came up just short of the super majorities needed to put a transportation “lockbox” on November’s ballot.
