CHACOUR KOOP, Associated Press
Updated 3:49 pm, Monday, April 14, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Increasing fuel taxes to pay for Illinois road construction will hurt businesses — and hit consumers at the pump, gas station owners said Monday.
A transportation advocacy group wants to hike the motor fuel tax by 4 cents a gallon as a way to fund a new statewide road-building program that would replace a $31 billion, five-year program expiring this year.
The last time the motor-fuel tax was increased to benefit transportation purposes was 1990. But gasoline retailers say the answer is not a tax hike, particularly in a sour economy when gasoline already costs $4 a gallon.
“This tax, as a retailer, would be pushed to the consumer. We as retailers live in penny profits and cannot afford to absorb this tax,” said Amy Chronister Ridley, vice president ofChronister Oil and Qik n EZ Convenience Stores, which operate in the Springfield area.
Ridley appeared with other gas-station owners and the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association at a state Capitol news conference. They oppose a plan by the Transportation for Illinois Coalition to keep the concrete flowing after this summer’s expiration of the Illinois Jobs Now construction program, which was adopted under Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.