CHANGES TO 23¢ GAS TAX INCREASE.  NOW 22.6¢ PER GALLON
JOIN NJGCA'S 2017 KICKOFF - GAS STATION & C-STORE SUMMIT

When I first drafted this email on Thursday morning, I felt confident that I had answered many, if not all, of the questions about the gas tax increase going into effect on Nov. 1. Of course, every time I think I’ve addressed everything, something else pops up.
 
Imagine my surprise when I received the official notice announcing the increase of the gas tax (Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax -- PPGRT) from the Department of Treasury and it said that the tax increase will be 22.6¢ per gallon, not the 23¢ per gallon that we've been discussing for the past three weeks! This was determined when the State applied the formula to calculate how high the tax needed to be in order to achieve the level of revenue necessary to fund the TTF.
 
FYI:  There are adjustment periods built into the legislation which allow for the tax to rise or fall by a few tenths of a cent each quarter, based on the overall volume of gasoline sales in the state.  I am not going to get into the nitty gritty of that right now, but we will keep you informed of when to expect changes, as well as explaining how the changes have been calculated.
 
You should have all received a Wildfire Alert about this change yesterday afternoon, but just in case you missed it, you can click here to read through that email and get all the details.
 
The NJ Department of Treasury is planning to mail an official copy of their official notice to each location with a Motor Fuels License.  It is expected to arrive at your locations no later than Monday. Surely this is not a reasonable time frame for official notification, since the tax change goes into effect at midnight on Monday, but since you’ve been kept apprised of the situation as it has developed, you should be better informed than those who don't belong to NJGCA and haven't received information from us.  You can read the official notification in advance of receiving it in the mail by clicking here.
 
One more note that I want to make clear:  If you receive a delivery after midnight on November 1^st and and the invoice does not include a 22.6¢ increase per gallon, do not think that you have avoided paying for that tax!!  You must be prepared to receive an additional invoice from your supplier for the 22.6¢.  You supplier is not going to eat the 22.6¢ just because the truck was loaded before midnight and it did not appear on the invoice. The State of New Jersey is going to make sure they get their 22.6¢ and the supplier is not going to eat it!
 
Finally, the tax on diesel won’t go up until January 1, 2017 (16¢) and then again on July 1 (an additional 11¢). So, for now, you only need to be concerned with gasoline.
 
My second (and final) announcement in this Road Warrior is about the Voter Guide issue of the On The Road magazine, which should be in your mailboxes by now.  Take a moment to review the questions that we asked the candidates, and the answers that they provided. Review the voting records of the current members of Congress that are up for re-election. If there is anything that you aren't clear about, please call the office. You all know I’m very political and I’d love to tell you who to vote for, but unfortunately it would be improper for me to do so.  However, I'm trying to put as much information in your hands so that you know that you can make an intelligent decision to cast your vote for the candidates that will serve you the best.
 
In addition to the Voter Guide, this issue of the OTR also introduced the Gas Station & Convenience Store Summit, which will be held on November 30^th.  We look forward to a successful event to kickoff 2017, our 80^th year of service to the gas station industry! This event will include programs from OSHA, Weights and Measures and Department of Environmental Protection officials, as well as information from NJGCA and our Member Benefit Partners about credit card fees, transition to EMV, safety and security of your customers’ credit card information, $15/hour minimum wage, mandatory paid sick leave, beer & wine at convenience stores, tobacco regulations, recycling restrictions, plastic bag taxes and much more.  To get a sneak peek at the second postcard that we will be sending out early next week, CLICK HERE. When you are ready to go online and register, click HERE.  We look forward to seeing you!
 
Thanks for reading -- See you all next week!

Sal Risalvato
Executive Director 

10/28/2016:
Amazon to Build Up to 2,000 C-Stores?
Amazon will begin its venture into brick-and-mortar grocery and convenience stores with 20 sites and has room for up to 2,000 locations, according to a new report on the effort. The Seattle-based online-commerce site aims to have a 20-location pilot program in operation by the end of 2018 in major cities such as Seattle, Las Vegas, New York, Miami and the Bay Area of California, Business Insider reported. It's still unclear exactly what the new stores will look like, with reports varyingly describing them as gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. Business Insider did offer a description of a drive-thru retail concept Amazon is considering, saying the sites could range from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet.
 
10/26/2016:
Is a perfect storm on the N.J. gas price radar? Or will the pump stay painless?
There are two storm clouds on the horizon for drivers as the holidays approach. First is a 23¢ per gallon increase in the state gas tax, which takes effect on Nov. 1st. Second is the Nov. 30 meeting of OPEC.  Will those clouds join together to create a perfect storm of gas prices or just result in a drizzle? On OPEC's agenda next month is whether its members can agree on crude oil production cuts. But this is not the 1970's or 1980's OPEC, which squeezed oil supplies to create gas crises in those decades, said Tom Kloza, Oil Price Information Service global petroleum expert. If OPEC decides to freeze crude oil production, they are still pumping oil at record levels, Kloza said. The other wild card is getting all the OPEC member nations, including Russia, to agree to make cuts, he said. OPEC nations have had a poor track record of following through on actually cutting production, he said. If OPEC decides to cut production, the US shale oil industry is waiting to take up the slack.  A crude oil price of $55 a barrel makes it cost effective to reopen shale wells, which shut down after prices bottomed out, Kloza said. Crude oil closed at $50.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, NASDAQ reported.

10/26/2016:
Retailers Urged to Vote ‘No’ on Tobacco Questions
With Election Day less than two weeks away, tobacco retailers, their employees and adult customers in California, Colorado and North Dakota are urged to vote NO on ballot questions that would significantly increase cigarette- and tobacco-tax rates in each of these states.  In California, the ballot question is called Proposition 56 and would increase the California cigarette-tax rate by $2 per pack and raise the tax rate on other tobacco products proportionately in line with the higher cigarette tax. In Colorado, the ballot question is titled Amendment 72 and would amend the Colorado Constitution to increase the cigarette tax by $1.75 per pack and raise the excise tax on other tobacco products by another 22%. In North Dakota, the ballot question is titled Measure 4. This ballot question would increase the North Dakota state cigarette tax by $1.76 per pack and raise the tax on other tobacco products from 56% of the wholesale price.
 
10/12/2016:
Philadelphia Considers Density Restrictions on Tobacco Retailers
The Philadelphia Department of Health has provisionally adopted a new set of tobacco regulations that would impose a limit of one retail store that sells tobacco products per 1,000 residents in each of the 18 districts in the city. This means that if the current density of retail stores that sell tobacco products is higher than the 1/1,000 ratio in any given district, then a retailer cannot relocate its store in that district, nor can a retailer open a new store in that district.  Retail stores that are licensed in the city could continue to sell tobacco products so long as the annual retail tobacco license is renewed.  However, on the health’s department's website, a table and map show that the density of retail stores exceeds the 1/1,000 limit in 14/18 planning districts. This limitation essentially guarantees that no new retail store development will occur in ¾ of the entire city. Here’s a map. The fact that the city’s board of health “provisionally” adopted the regulation Sept. 8, 2016, before requesting or receiving input from the public, including retailers affected by the regulations, is problematic.  This process is essentially backwards and does not allow public input first and governmental-agency deliberation second.