Gas Taxes Going Up in Maryland

Maryland’s Senate just voted to raise gas prices by 4 cents per gallon this summer and that’s just for starters.

The 4 cent increase is just the first phase of a plan to refill the state’s transportation funding. Between now and 2016 prices will rise somewhere between 13 and 20 cents per gallon.

The so-called Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act is expected to raise more than 4 billion dollars for road construction and repair over the next six years.

The new state tax in Maryland comes on top of plans by the Obama EPA to switch the entire country to low-sulfur fuel, like the kind already mandated in California. The EPA claims the switch will only cost consumers an additional penny per gallon but the oil industry says the cost could be closer to 9 cents per gallon.