To make sure gas stations aren’t taking advantage of the driving public, County Executive Andy Spano today directed the county’s Department of Consumer Protection to issue subpoenas to 11 gas stations that had the largest increase in gasoline prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

    “We want to make sure that these increases are really justified,’’ said County Executive Andy Spano, who ordered the action last week as part of a series of measures to relieve the burden on consumers. “It’s bad enough that the cost of oil is soaring, but if we find that stations are gouging when so many people are suffering, we will do everything in our power to come down hard on these people.’’

     Elaine Price, director of Consumer Protection, said the 11 subpoenas went out today to stations whose prices jumped more than 60 cents from Aug.31 to Sept. 1. Gas stations receiving subpoenas have until Monday to produce records of their gas deliveries that will show how much they paid per gallon and when. This will help determine whether the increases passed on to the public are justified. More subpoenas are expected in the next few days.

     At Spano’s directive, the department did back-to-back surveys Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 and found the average increase in that 24-hour period was 30 cents. But at some stations, the increase was substantially more.  The most extreme example was Hilltop Service in Shrub Oak, where the price went from $2.85 to $3.99.

    Spano said the consumer department’s action appears to be producing results already, with Hilltop Service of Shrub Oak dropping its price from 3.99/gallon on Sept. 1 to 3.69/gallon the next day.

    According to the last survey done was $3.25 per gallon. That average is likely to go up when a new survey is released tomorrow on the department’s website at www.westchestergov.com/consumer, said Price.

    However, crude prices are now stabilizing so consumers should see some reduction in the near future.
Spano said in addition to cracking down on unscrupulous gas station owners, he will ask the state to give the county the power to cap the county portion of the sales tax levy on gasoline. He is also calling upon the state to cap its portion of the sales tax and asked the federal government to lower the flat taxes it imposes on gas.

    In New York, when gas costs $3 per gallon, motorists pay about 66 cents per gallon in taxes – more when the price of gas goes higher. Spano said it is not right that governments should gain from these soaring gas prices. If the county and the state portions of the sales tax were capped, motorists would save about $2 per fill up -- and more if prices go higher.

    Spano said. “I hope the state Legislature will come back in session and act at once to freeze the revenues local governments can take in from the sales tax on gasoline. This action to cap the sales tax can be taken without affecting property taxes.”

    Spano said in the meantime the county’s consumer department would review the records from gas stations and if price gouging is found, evidence would be referred to the state Attorney General’s Office or other actions might be taken locally.
 

    He noted that gas stations assert that their suppliers will not give them new shipments of gasoline if they do not pay the suppliers the higher wholesale prices.

    “However, I believe some of these stations are raising prices in anticipation of higher wholesale prices – before they actually get the new gas delivery. How else do you explain a rise at some stations of more than $1 in one day?’’

Riders taking advantage of the May free fare period on the Westchester County Bee-Line Bus System are getting yet another bonus. 

Forty-one new, fully-accessible, buses were recently delivered to the Bee-Line and all are expected to be in service on routes throughout the county by the end of this week.

The new buses include 21 standard transit buses and 20-18 passenger shuttle buses.  The shuttle buses are used on commuter feeder services, reverse commute routes and on routes in sparsely populated areas or where road conditions do not accommodate the use of larger, standard buses.

County Executive Andy Spano welcomed the delivery of the new buses as an important part of his program to reduce the average age of the county’s transit bus fleet, lower maintenance costs and increase reliability.  “Seven years ago the average age of the buses on the county’s roads was 13 years even though the expected useful life of a transit bus is only 12 years,” Spano said.  “And two thirds of the fleet back then was not even wheelchair accessible.

“With the expected delivery of another 104 new buses, all local Bee-Line bus routes will be completely accessible and we will have replaced two-thirds of the entire fleet, reducing the average age to under six years.”

According to Spano, 98 percent of transit buses now burn Ultra-Low Sulfur fuel which burns less soot; plans are also underway to introduce this fuel to the 60 vans operating in the county’s ParaTransit system.

“We have also recently ordered four experimental low-floor hybrid diesel-electric buses that could be the models for all future bus purchases.  This technology could make additional significant contributions to clean air, fuel efficiency and passenger comfort, if they prove reliable when we put them in service on regular routes next year,” according to the County Executive. 

“Our goal is to have the cleanest, most accessible, most reliable and most efficient bus system in the country,” Spano said, “and we are now well on the way to achieving that.”