Yo, Pennsylvania! Fasten those seat belts at your financial peril. Gas taxes are going up again. Really! There is small comfort in knowing we are number one! We have the highest excise tax in the country! Yay us! Or not. This impending tax coming on the heels of so many of us just beginning to crawl out from under the pandemic, supply chain issues, high inflation and just-now-easing gasoline prices, seems to hit us when we are down. In January, 61.1 cents of every gallon of gas we buy will go out of our pockets and into Pennsylvania tax coffers. We cannot afford four more cents/gal (ish) this year. To add to the insult of this impending increase is the fact that the Legislature is sitting on big bucks in various slush funds, money that seems subject to little oversight and accountability. Examples? Outgoing Speaker Bryan Cutler moved more than $52 million in the Republican Leadership account, whatever that is. Additionally (pun intended), State Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced a deposit of $2.1 BILLION into Pennsylvania’s Rainy Day Fund. The calculus embedded in the 2013 PA Law heartlessly locks us into increases, no matter how the rest of us are weathering all of these pre-existing financial storms.Yet the slush remains. Governor Wolf, Governor-elect Shapiro, PA Legislators, no matter your political leanings, take a good look outside, look beyond your gilded political offices, your government vehicles and travel allowances, and see the rest of us, because, for many of us, it’s raining. We do not need, nor can we really afford, yet another taxing kick in the teeth. Take some measure to mitigate this new tax sting. Enough is enough.