New Gas Tax Increase Takes Effect Next Month

Indiana's gas tax is set to increase again this year - it's a small hike after last year's 10 cent surge.

Lawmakers said the 2017 road funding bill's 10 cent gas tax hike was to catch up after the state went nearly two decades without an increase.

To avoid falling behind again, lawmakers also created automatic yearly increases, tied roughly to inflation. They're capped at one penny a year - and halted after 2024 without new legislative action.

Scot Imus heads the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, the trade group for many of the state's gas station owners. He says customers likely won't notice this year's hike.

"But a tax is a tax," Imus says. "This is a tax that will never go down, that will be added up."

Polls suggest most Hoosiers support the gas tax increase. But Imus says it's also a yearly tax hike without a vote.

"We think that every time you increase taxes that the legislators ought to be able to justify it," Imus says.

Imus says Hoosiers will pay more than 60 cents in state and federal taxes per gallon of gas they buy beginning in July.