Fears have grown that more efficient cars mean less money for Illinois to fund roads. But the state already collects higher revenues than ever while burdening drivers with high taxes and fees. | Photo by Patrick Gorski/NurPhoto via AP
By Ravi Mishra | Illinois Policy Institute
Illinois is collecting more money from gas taxes and driving fees than ever, but concerns are growing about electric cars and fuel efficiency limiting funds for roads and bridges.
Illinois has an efficiency problem rather than a funding problem – and it’s not fuel efficiency that’s the problem. According to the latest report from the Reason Foundation, Illinois ranked 45th in the nation in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. This ranking shows inefficiencies in how the state allocates funds as it spends $98,000 per lane-mile while it’s expected to spend $68,000 based on factors such as urbanization.
Burdening drivers to cover costs for ballooning inefficient budgets is nothing new for Illinois. Below is an overview of fees and taxes Illinoisans face for owning and operating a vehicle.
Gas taxes
In 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker doubled the per-gallon gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents. Since then, it has grown to 47 cents per gallon. Illinois is also one of the few states to apply sales taxes to gas after the motor fuel tax is charged, essentially taxing drivers on the taxes they are paying.
As a result, Illinois drivers pay the second-highest combined state, federal and local gas taxes in the country, only behind California. About 85 cents of every gallon of gas goes to these taxes, nearly double what some of Illinois’ Midwest neighbors, such as Missouri, charge. The average Illinois driver pays $323 annually in state gas taxes alone.
Read on here.