As Illinois fuel prices remain at historic highs, gasoholics are bolting for the borders or lining up for free gas. Grief at the pump is universal.
Like the weather, everybody is complaining about the rising cost of gasoline, some of it because of the Russo-Ukrainian War which is fueling higher inflation numbers. We’ll grouse about gas, but where’s the outrage for the high cost of lifesaving medications or that Starbucks latte?
Milwaukee TV station WTMJ aired a news segment last week featuring highly elevated Illinois gas prices. Camera crews descended on a BP station in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, just over the state line.
The station was replete with Illinois drivers filling up. Illinois motorists also are flocking to Indiana, Iowa and Kentucky to find lower gas prices.
At the Pleasant Prairie station, drivers from Waukegan and Zion were interviewed, griping about Illinois gas prices. “It’s only a 10-minute drive and saves 50 cents, sometimes 75 cents a gallon, so it’s worth my while,” one Waukeganite said.
The average price of gas in Wisconsin is $4.02 a gallon; in Illinois, $4.56. Over the weekend, Lake County gas prices hovered around $4.39 a gallon, which includes that four-cent gas tax imposed at the pump last year by the Democrat-controlled County Board.
In Chicago last week, the average price of regular was $4.84 per gallon, up from $3.28 a year ago, according to Triple A. That’s why hundreds of city drivers queued up for free gas.
At least Chicagoans have a gas daddy in self-made millionaire Willie Wilson, a philanthropist and past political candidate. He spent $200,000 of his own money last Thursday, offering people $50 gas cards at 10 stations across the city until funds were exhausted.
Gas buddy Wilson plans to hold another giveaway March 24 with a larger pot of money at around 50 gas stations, while a minister in the city treated drivers to free gas on Sunday. Some analysts predict gas prices will jump to $5 a gallon as summer nears, and if the barbaric attacks against Ukraine continue.
The U.S. oil price of bench mark West Texas crude spiked earlier this month at $123.70 a barrel, the highest since August 2008. Increasing numbers of officials are calling for a suspension of the 18-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax to ease the impact on drivers.
A growing throng of governors have called for postponing the federal gas tax for the rest of this year. Governors in Georgia and Maryland have suspended their states’ gas taxes. That’s what an election year will do to some politicians.
Because of lofty gas prices, Dick Barr, a Lake County Board member from Round Lake Beach who is retiring from his post this year, has challenged the board to repeal the year-old gas tax. The county “needs to rethink its position on the gas tax,” the Republican said in a statement.
The new tax was approved about this time last year. The vote was nearly split along partisan lines, with 14 of 15 Democrats voting in favor and all six Republicans opposing it. Waukegan-area representative Diane Hewitt was the sole Democrat to cross party lines and vote against the gas tax.
All County Board seats are up for election this year after redistricting following the U.S. Census. County Board rules allow for only those who prevailed at a vote can have a measure brought back for reconsideration.
Democrats in favor of the increased tax argue higher gas prices will help lower the county’s carbon footprint and help pay for the cost of road construction and maintenance. Or apparently complainers could also drive less or work from home more.
Barr says the county tax is “ridiculous” and that residents, “are still suffering from the economic impacts of the pandemic and are unable to afford” the levy at the pumps. Even President Joe Biden is shelving his campaign pledge to curb drilling on public lands, although Big Oil is wary current high gas prices won’t last.
That and the county gas tax hike are cold comfort to motorists caught in the supply-demand squeeze. Ironically, March 18 marked the 1974 anniversary of when most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the U.S.
That’s when lines outside gas stations stretched for blocks. The price was about 55 cents a gallon back then.
Lake County needs its own gas daddy like Willie Wilson. Or at least the County Board to take another look at that regressive tax at the pump.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
Twitter: @sellenews
