Local City Could Raise Gasoline Tax

Alabama Gas Prices Saraland City officials are looking at the idea.

by Steve Alexander

Published: Wed, April 08, 2009 - 7:49 pm CST

You could be paying more for gasoline, but only in one Mobile County city.
The Saraland City Council is looking into possibly increasing the tax on gasoline by a penny a gallon.
City Council President Dr. Howard Rubenstein said, "Nobody likes to say that we're in favor of a tax increase, but we think this one is minimal."
Saraland city officials said the downturn in the economy has meant they're collecting less sales taxes
Rubenstein said, "None of it is for the school system. It is all dedicated for streets, and re-surfacing, street management, drainage, those issues.
Saraland has the lowest property tax of any municipality in Mobile County. Our sales tax is also the lowest. Recently, Satsuma and Chickasaw, our two neighboring communities, raised their gas tax to five cents a gallon. Ours is currently four. The proposal would make ours basically equal to theirs."
News Five asked motorists at one Saraland gas station Wednesday night if the tax hike would make them stop buying gas in that city.
Lawrence Saranthus of Mobile said, "No, I've got to work up here. I've got to get gas anyway. A penny isn't going to make any difference to me."
Camon Brannon lives in Satsuma, but he said, "No, not particularly."
Derrick Montalvo said, "It wouldn't make any difference. I'd buy gas anywhere. If you need gas, you've got to get gas."
Rubenstein said the city already has a hiring and promotion freeze and has cutback on overtime.
The City Council is scheduled to talk about the increase at its meeting Thursday night.

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Wait4Me Says:

Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Every time they want to raise taxes in this area we as taxpayers should get to know some simple things like, how many city employees received raised in the last 6 months? What does the city council make? What areas have they cut back on in an effort to reduce expenses versus raising taxes on citizens? If they do raise taxes they should be a amendment to the law that restricts city council raises for the next 5 years. If this was a rule they would figure out a way to cut expenses instead or raising taxes. Less government and less useless projects and lower taxes, this would entice people to move to the area resulting in more revenue and the ability to lower taxes even more.