Drivers are now paying $35 more to fill-up on regular gasoline and $65 more for diesel than they were a year ago. Gas taxes eat more than one-fifth of every tank.
Independence Day travel will return to pre-pandemic levels this weekend, reminding Illinoisans they pay the most for gas in the Midwest thanks to high taxes.
Illinois gas station owners lost their legal fight over the requirement to advertise the delay in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s annual gas tax hike. Stations now will post the mandated signs July 1, but are also telling drivers how much state leaders raised the gas taxes.
President Biden will call on Congress to suspend the federal gasoline and diesel tax for three months. Instead of suspending it, Gov J.B. Pritzker delayed the next motor fuel tax hike until after the election, hitting Illinois drivers with two hikes in 2023.
A trade group representing gas station owners is suing the Pritzker administration over the requirement to advertise a delayed gas tax hike starting July 1. Owners said they’re being forced to promote political rhetoric, violating their right to free speech.
Illinois’ record-high fuel prices mean consumers pay more for everyday items. Pritzker’s 2019 doubling of gas, diesel, and natural gas taxes are partly to blame.
The same unions that supported doubling the gas tax in 2019 donated $15 million to politicians who voted for Amendment 1, a proposed tax hike sold as a “workers’ rights” amendment.
Rising gas prices show no sign of stopping. Average gas prices in Illinois are more than $5 a gallon, thanks in part to the nation’s second-highest motor fuel tax.
For Illinois border resident Brett Retherford and his neighbors, high Illinois fuel taxes drive them to buy their gasoline in Iowa. Illinois politicians’ heavy demands lose them hoped-for taxes when drivers have a choice.
Millions of motorists will hit the road this Memorial Day weekend, an unfriendly reminder of skyrocketing gas prices. Illinoisans specifically pay the most for gas in the Midwest.
Amendment 1 would allow government unions to nullify hundreds of Illinois statutes – including laws aimed at protecting school children – simply by contradicting them in union contracts.