Gas price increase already raises taxes

On July 1, the first of the month the Daily Herald headline read "Sales tax goes up today."

I was a gas station owner and operator for 35 years, so I know when gasoline or diesel prices go up, so do our taxes.

When we buy a gallon of gasoline, we pay local tax, city tax, county tax, state and federal tax. All these taxes amount to about half of the price that we are paying per gallon of gas.

Near the first of the year, we were paying about $2.85 per gallon. Now we are paying about $4.35 per gallon. That's an increase of $1.50 per gallon.

As a result, the added taxes on the additional $1.50 per gallon gives the country a multimillion dollar windfall.

There should be no shortage of money to run the country with, yet Todd Stroger, Richard Daley and Rod Blagojevich all claim they have to raise taxes to meet the budget.

Perhaps all voters should keep this in mind when it's time for the next election.

Joe Dun

Prospect Heights