My first modest proposal on the lottery having been entered into the virtual black hole and treated accordingly, I now have another, serious suggestion. I’m sure you’ve heard this one: Wull, the state’s losing all that money over the border to lottery states! Those poor convenience stores in the border counties can’t compete!
Hmm. If we want to save the convenience stores! ? here’s one sure-fire way of doing it. Rather than offering a lottery, cut the state gas tax! Consider:
? Virginia’s gas tax is 41.7 cents per gallon
? Tennessee’s gas tax is 42.8 cents per gallon
? Georgia’s gas tax is 37.1 cents per gallon
? South Carolina’s gas tax is 41.2 cents per gallon
But North Carolina’s gas tax is 49 cents per gallon.
If we were to drop NC’s gas tax to below Georgia’s, or even below South Carolina’s, then all of a sudden our border convenience stores would be able to offer much more competitively priced gas, drawing people across the borders.
Besides, given the disparity between our gas taxes and all of our immediate neighbors’ (at least in 2004, the date of these data), it’s likely that NC residents living on or near the borders already cross it for gasoline ? and by extension, all the other, ancillary purchases one makes at a gas station and convenience store.
