SALT LAKE CITY -- Each gallon of gas pumped into car tanks could cost drivers a nickel more per gallon if Utah state government decides to enforce a pending tax bill.
As sponsor of the gas bill, Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, said he believes the money spent on a higher gas tax will result in lower costs for drivers because the money will go to fixing roads.
"We have the price of gasoline, but then when we start looking at our time on the highway, our time sitting at stoplights, traffic--those things all have their costs as well," Van Tassell said, according [image-nocss] to a report in the BYU Universe.
In its first year, the bill would provide an additional $22 million for road repairs. In turn, it would cost drivers about $20 a year, Van Tassell said.
"That looked like something I could afford," Van Tassell said. "I'd have to give up a Diet Coke a month to pay that."
While intending to make the proposed tax hike sound minor, Van Tassell's example underscores how such a tax increase can hurt a convenience-store retailer.
"If they put that 5-cent tax on [gas], we never get that back," Jeff Wade, owner of Mountainland One Stop, a gas station and convenience store located in Heber, told the newspaper. "It's there--we see it--[but] it's going to be 5 cents higher always."
Wade added that its independent retailers like himself that get hurt the most. "It's not going to affect the bigger companies," he said. "But the smaller stores, it's going to affect them drastically."
Wade said stations like his make only a penny to a penny and a half on a gallon of gas. In order to offset this small margin, stations run convenience stores for profit, a profit that slowly disappears if consumers have to pay more to fill their tanks.
"We make our money on the items in the store," he said. "All [the consumers] do is cut back on their other purchases, which, in turn, hurts me."
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