New gas taxes arrive just as Hawaii prices jump - Washington Business Journal:

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The state Legislature let expire a tax exemption on gas salese that will add almost 10 centas to a gallon startingJuly 1. The net gain for the statew general fund isabout $40 milliom annually. Also going into effect July 1 — unlesws Gov. Linda Lingle vetoes it sometime over the nextmont — is a $1.05 surcharge, up from five on every barrel of petroleum sold in the The tax revenue is suppose d to help pay for developmenrt of clean-energy systems, but some will also make its way into the generall fund. It will add about two centa to a gallonof gas. While the averages price of a gallon of regular unleaded has jumped 46 centss a gallon over the past two month sto $2.
91, that’s still a long way from the $4.59 recorded July 31, 2008. Gas dealers, amongb the first to feel any price pinch, are already doing the math on thenew “It will easily add 15 cents per gallon,” said Al president of , which has 14 Shelk and Tesoro stations on Maui, Kauai and the Big “That’s huge when you factor in everythingg else. If gas prices keep goin up it could be 45 cents overthe summer. That hurtz dealers.” Oahu residents got a breako when the recently decided not to raissethe county’s fuel tax three centsw to 19.5 cents a gallon. And then there are the less-obvious charges that are drivebn by fuel costs and thenew taxes.
will raise its fuel surchargse to 28 percent onJuly 5. That’ss far less than the 38.25 percent it charged last July but up significantly from the 15 percenr Matson charged by the end of November 2008. Other shipping companies will likelyfollow suit. This raised rates, its first adjustment since 2001. The increase will add between $4 and $8 to the average residential gas bill for half ofthe company’xs 70,000 customers. And will raise its fuel-adjustment fee this montb from 18.15 cents per kilowatt hour to It’s HECO’s first surcharge hike sinc e September 2008, when it charged 32.
5 HECO spokesman Peter Rosegg said the surcharge reflectds the changes infuel costs, something the company passes directly on to Though it burns between 15 million and 17 million barrels of oil for electricity each year (roughlyu one-third of the total numbeer of barrels imported to the Rosegg said the barrel tax impact will be negligibld and that HECO welcomes the state’d investment in clean-energy development. “If oil goes back up to $140 a then you pay he said. Small businessmen like Doug Sugidono, who runs in are already paying attention.
“Io have had to diversifg by amping up mytire business,” said And another product sold by Sugidono will get a tax increase July 1 when the cigarettee tax goes from 10 cents to 13 cents a pack. It rises to 14 cents in 2010 and to 15 centain 2011. “They can’t help it people still have to smoke,” said Sugidono.