June 9, 2022 – Illinois’ average price per gallon of regular gas is now a full dollar more than neighboring Missouri, driven mainly by the state’s gas and sales tax on top of the cost of fuel. Some want a special session of the state legislature to take more action. The average price of regular gas in Illinois Wednesday was $5.53 a gallon. Illinois’ average Wednesday is a full dollar more than a month ago and $2.20 more than a year ago. The national average was $4.95. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the increased price of gas is a global market problem, saying a lot of the increase is because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and inflation. Gas prices started rising well before war in Ukraine, and many blame Biden’s green energy agenda placing more restrictions on the oil and gas industry.“I don’t think anybody expected that we’d be here with regard to gasoline prices,” Pritzker said at an unrelated event in Springfield Wednesday. “Like you, I drive by the signs, you know, or pull into a gas station and feel it with, you know, where you’re talking more than $5 in many places, and now I see that there are places in the country where they’re at $6 or $7 or $9.”In Missouri, the average price was $4.53 as of Wednesday, according to AAA. Of all Illinois’ neighbors, Illinois’ average was the highest. Indiana’s average was $5.23.“The outrageous price gouging perpetrated on the motoring public needs to end,” Illinois Senate President Don Harmon spokesman John Patterson said. “Nothing in Illinois caused prices of $5 or more a gallon. Washington needs to act.”One thing that does drive Illinois gas prices higher than other Midwest states is the state’s high gas taxes, which are the second highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. Illinois lawmakers on a bipartisan basis approved doubling the state’s gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents a gallon in 2019. The measure also tacked on an annual increase tied to inflation. That is on top of the federal gas tax, and any county or municipal gas tax some Illinois taxing bodies can put on top. Some lawmakers say there should be a special session to cap the sales tax Illinois places on top of the motor fuel tax drivers pay filling up at the pump. Governor Pritzker has not said whether he’d call for a special session. He did point to the tax package lawmakers approved in the spring that sends income and property taxpayers rebates and temporarily nixes the grocery tax in the upcoming budget year, though rebates aren’t expected for months.“Remember, we’re providing hundreds of dollars of relief directly to families that they can use for precisely this purpose, they can use it for anything they want, groceries or something else,” Pritzker said. “And they’re able to use that in addition to the cessation of the increase in gas tax in order to pay for gasoline.”Illinois’ annual gas tax increase of around 2 cents a gallon that was set for July 1 has been delayed until Jan. 1, as part of that package.
