By GREG BISHOP for the ILLINOIS RADIO NETWORK
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) — Illinois drivers already paying some of the highest gas prices in the country can expect to pay more after an attack on a Saudi Arabian oil operation.
In addition, an Illinois petroleum marketing expert said there are other factors likely to keep the prices in the Land of Lincoln elevated.
Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association Executive Vice President Bill Fleischli said he doesn’t want panic drivers, but said he expects prices to increase up to 8 cents a gallon in the days ahead.
Patrick DeHaan, a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, said the overseas event definitely shocked the oil market. He projected prices at the pump to increase as much as 20 cents over several weeks.
“Perhaps the saving grace is that I’m not expecting Illinois average prices to breach their previous 2019 highs,” DaHaan said. “So you do not have to hop in your car and fill up. Gas prices are not going to skyrocket overnight, but they will be impacted.”
In July, the average price of gas in Illinois was about $3 a gallon. Prices at the pump on Monday for regular gasoline ranged from $2.22 to $2.71 a gallon, according to GasBuddy. The expected increase could make Illinois’ most expensive gas nearly $3 a gallon.
DeHaan said the president’s move to make strategic oil reserves available will likely cool down a volatile global oil market. As for Illinoisans, DeHaan said this summers’ doubling of the gas tax also plays a role.
“Most areas will see similar increases, but partially due to the tax increase in Illinois, Illinois may have some of the higher prices in the region,” DeHaan said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law that doubled the state’s gas tax from 19 cents a gallon to 38 cents a gallon this summer as part of a package of measures to fund more than $40 billion in infrastructure spending. Future tax increases are tied to inflation with a nearly a penny increase every year thereafter.
Fleischli said there were other factors in Illinois that will make convenience stores in border communities less competitive than those in neighboring states.
“We forget to mention the minimum wage [increase],” Fleischli said.
The first of two minimum wage increases next year kicks in on Jan. 1. That takes the state’s existing minimum wage of $8.25 an hour to $9.25. On July 1, the minimum wage goes to $10. It increases a dollar every year to $15 an hour by 2025.
“You have to pay more for your wholesale price, you have to raise it at retail, so your volume goes away and your inside sales go away and you have to pay more of your help,” Fleischli said. “It makes the border go from a five-mile border to a 50-mile border. I’ve said it before. We’ve put the small business petroleum worker under the endangered species anymore.”