A few days before Thanksgiving I bought gas at a Costco for $2.559 per gallon… only my effective cost was about $2.33.
As a Costco customer with a Costco VISA card I get 5% off the cost of each gallon, taking 51.2¢ off the final price. And, thanks to a quirk in the law raising Missouri’s fuel tax a few years back, we can all get 10¢ a gallon off for fuel bought by Missouri residents in this state.
Of course, these discounts are – and aren’t – available to everyone.
To qualify for the Costco discount you need to be a member, a $65 a year fee for me and my wife. With all we buy at the stores, from prescriptions to charcoal, that isn’t a problem so much as an investment. Yet, membership is a cost and Costco only has five locations in the region: with just one, at the western most edge of University City, close to working class areas and concentrations of minorities. Many folks who could benefit the most don’t have the option.
Likewise, claiming that state tax refund is a challenge. It must be completed on-line [ https://dor.mo.gov/forms/4923-H.pdf ] between July and September of each year. The form is complicated and requires internet access plus a bank account to complete. And, it requires explicit information from the receipts for each fuel purchase (just keep an envelope in the car all year).
So, while a middle class retiree in Missouri can take 60¢ a gallon off their fill-up cost, a lot of people can’t.
Since warehouse club memberships and computer access tend to be much more common the higher you are on the economic ladder, the discounts tend to accrue to better off families.
Kind of what Missouri’s used car selling governor plans with the income tax elimination. We all buy groceries and paper towels. Most of us get haircuts. But the share of our income dedicated to consumables or basic things is greater for working class and struggling families. Working people spend their income, rich folks invest chunks of theirs. Yes, eliminating that pesky 4.8% Individual Income Tax sounds good. The cost of replacing the billions of dollars the income tax collects with higher and expanded sales taxes probably means an extra 25¢ on every gallon of milk and around $2.50 on a $20 haircut.
In the end, the rich give less and the rest pay more. Just as they do when buying gasoline.
Those that lead Washington, D.C. and Missouri work hard to protect the rich. The rest of us have to scramble for pennies.
Glenn