Gas Gauge: Geneva Prices High and Holding

I was listening in on the conference call this week by Republican state senators from our neck of the woods—Chris Lauzen (25th District), Ron Sandack (21st District) and Kirk Dillard (24th District)—and as you can imagine, they had a lot to say about the state spending crisis.

But perhaps the biggest story that came out of their conversation is an old idea made new again.

Dillard is pushing—as hard as is possible in the ongoing legislative tumult—to eliminate the state's sales tax on gasoline. Dillard says this could cut the price by 20 cents and gallon, and he's advocating this course of action ASAP.

"Now that Chicagoland has highest gas prices in America, I renew my call for eliminating the state's sales tax on gasoline," he said. "Illinois is one of a handful of states that charges both a state tax and motor fuel tax, and I think it's time for us to eliminate the state's 5  percent sales tax on gasoline."

There are a few devils in that detail, but Dillard says he would not take away local government's portion of the sales tax (good news for Geneva) and the state can afford to do this for consumers because of the state tax hikes already proposed will bring $7 billion of new revenue to Illinois' coffers.

I'll try to write a quick, separate story on this topic, as well, time permitting.

Gas prices this week

I should mention that the gas prices listed below were actually collected on Tuesday morning, but it's taken me this long to write the dang story.

More classical gas stories

• Susan Sarkauskus of the Daily Herald has a very good story on how gas prices are affecting Geneva schools and the School District budget. The headline is More for gas, less from state for Geneva schools' bus budget.
• The Associated Press has a story saying that gas prices will drop 50 cents, starting as early as June. As Dave Barry says, we are not making this up.

Patterns, where are the dang patterns?

I've been watching local gas prices for a long time now, first as an assignment my boss and dear friend Jim King gave to me and a few reporters about five years ago, back when I was associate editor at The Beacon News. During that time, I've tried to spot trends and had mixed luck, but one pattern seems consistent.

When prices shift quickly, there's a disparity between the high and low prices, and it's hard to figure which station will be on the high or low end of the spectrum. Then there's an evening-out period—like the one we're in now—when almost all the stations have the same price or are within a few cents of each other.

That goes on until the next spike or drop.

From the consumer's standpoint, it feels like collusion when the prices are all the same and whimsical gouging when prices spike. I'm sure there's a good, solid, unemotional explanation to all this, but I have yet to read it. Let us know if you have a link to any stories on this topic.

* Cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, not including the .9 cent kicker.