New story in the local paper about it. The city tries to justify it with emergency and protective services, except they fail to mention the fact that there's no tax increase on gas in Mount Vernon. I love the part of the justification where they say that, in the last two year alone, the police have responded to 784 calls to assist truckers who have been robbed or harassed by prostitutes and drug dealers. I dunno, I think if they did their job in the first place by eliminating the prostitution and drug dealing that those 785 calls would fall off a bit.
Mt. Vernon Register-News - Truckers boycotting Mt. Vernon diesel
In any case, because of the local and state sales taxes in Illinois, which come directly out of the fuel discounts we get at the TA, I avoid buying fuel in the state whenever possible. It's just cheaper nearly everywhere else around. In the article above it talks about Effingham having added a 2 cent tax a while ago, and that the price for fuel up there is 2-3 cents higher than in Mount Vernon. And that's true - $2.969 in Effingham and $2.939 in Mount Vernon (as of yesterday, at the TA), so the overall price is actually cheaper in Mount Vernon. (However, with the Panther discounts at the TA, Effingham is 2 cents cheaper.)
Take a close look at the daily pricing and compare the local taxes with the amount of discounts we get. It's about a 25 cents cheaper in the surrounding states.
