More Taxes

New federal and state gasoline tax hikes went into effect last Friday, raising the tax on a gallon of gasoline by a total of 6.1 cents.

The state bill, which effectively increased state gasoline taxes from 9.9 to 11 cents per gallon, was signed into law last week just after being approved by the legislature.

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis had requested the tax like on March 2 as part of his 1984 budget in an attempt to boost falling gas tax revenues. The rates were previously pegged to the wholesale price of gasoline, which has been dropping in the last few months.

A federal tax increase of five cents per gallon, which also went into effect last Friday, was approved by President Reagan in January in order to fund & national highway renewal project.

Gasoline retailers and representatives of taxi companies said last week that the tax increase would have little effect on them, because it just slightly offsets a much larger drop in the wholesale price of gasoline.