Volvo Looking For A Partner To Build Cars In North America

This is supposed to be in line with inflation, which is understandable, to an extent. I believe this may be the smallest year over year increase since 2017. i think this year is just a 3c increase.  And, in all fairness, I've noticed a ton more road construction since 2017. Yes, it's inconvenient, but there were a lot of bad roads. Now, there are a lot less and there's still plenty of construction in the area. In fact, it's currently taking me about 15 minutes longer to get home for the next couple weeks due to "emergency bridge construction". It sucks, but I understand it and also appreciate the nicer roads. 

Honestly, that's actually a good thing that it goes up every July. The problem with many states, and this isn't just gas taxes but all taxes, is that they don't index taxes to inflation, and then the governments are forced into drastic budget cuts and big jumps in taxes.  I work with local governments in PA and time after time I see this play out.  They pay themselves on the back for keeping property taxes low and not raising them for 6 years and then boom, they find themselves in a deficit which local towns are not allowed to run in PA.  Then there's a big tax hike and everyone gets pissed.  I'm working with one town where the population of the town is very affluent, but the town is going broke because of the tax structure.  They rely on property taxes, but the county hasn't reassessed property values in 30 years. So you have parcels that are worth 6-7 figures being assessed for tax purposes at like 100k.   And now everyone is stuck because if the properties get reassessed, the property taxes jump a few hundred percent.  Having the gas tax go up a little bit every year is the smarter way to do it. 

The good old days...    

IL has the highest taxed gas (or 2nd/3rd highest - it goes back and forth with PA or CA or something - I don't know, top 3. ). 48.3c/gal as of July. It's gone up every July for the last like 6 years. When it first went up in 2017, that was fine. It did need to go up to maintain the roads. I believe it had been a very long time prior and I understood that. It's since gone up every year. In 2017 it went up to 19c/gal and it's ballooned up to 48.3c/gal.  Your average for 87 is $5/gal? The internet (AAA's website) is showing $4.39 for WA. IL is at $3.43. California is still the highest in the nation at $4.65.  https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/

Hence my secondary thought of buying an older four wheel drive full size truck. Our second vehicle sees few miles. Our 2004 Aveo has 84 K on it.  I am buying so much less. I don't want to support the current system, enough said.