Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated Maryland’s gas tax rate effective Friday: 33.5 cents per gallon.
Washington and Maryland will hike their gas taxes Friday — and New Jersey could approve a big hike this week — as travel-industry experts project the lowest gas prices in a decade and record travelers on the road for the Independence Day holiday.
The New Jersey Assembly approved a 23-cent per gallon hike Tuesday. The state Senate will consider the proposal this week. Gov. Chris Christie said he hopes to sign the legislation, which would also reduce the state sales tax from 7% to 6%, by Thursday.
The gas tax, which had been among the country's lowest, would reach 37.5 cents per gallon. Christie said the legislative package would provide the first statewide tax reduction since 1994, while still boosting dedicated funding for roads, bridges and transit systems.
"It seems like a fairly powerful combination to me," Christie told reporters.
Tracy Noble, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said the hike is large, but necessary to repair roads and bridges that deteriorated during the 28 years since the state's last gas-tax increase. The state's transportation trust fund is set to run out of money at the end of Thursday without a remedy, she said.
"A 23-cent hike in the gas tax is a lot to happen all at one time," Noble said. "Unfortunately, our roads and bridges are in dire need of repair."
Washington and Maryland already have gas hikes certain for the holiday. The increases come as AAA projects the average price of $2.31 per gallon for the holiday weekend, the lowest since 2005.
Washington State will hike the rate 4.9 cents per gallon, the second part of an increase from last year to yield an overall rate of 49.4 cents per gallon.
Maryland’s rate will rise 0.9 cents, to 33.5 cents per gallon. The rate has been rising under a 2013 formula that accounts for inflation.
Three states will cut their rates. California’s rate drops 2.2 cents – the third cut in as many years – to leave a rate of 27.8 cents per gallon.
Nebraska will reduce its rate 1 cent, to 25.8 cents per gallon. The cut followed an increase Jan. 1 of 0.7 cents per gallon.
North Carolina will also cut its rate 1 cent, to 35 cents per gallon.
The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon has remained the same since 1993.
Advocates of greater highway and bridge construction have urged an increase in the federal tax, but Congress has refused to raise the rate, and instead channeled funding in December for the latest highway bill from other streams such as Federal Reserve funds and petroleum reserves.
Despite the fluctuations, most states have also gone years without changing their rates, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Sixteen states have gone at least two decades without a gas-tax increase, according to the study. Five of those states have seen an increase since at least the 1980s: Alaska, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Tennessee "has been collecting the same 20 cents in tax per gallon of gas since July 1, 1989 – a few months prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Carl Davis, research director at the institute.
