Border residents take advantage of gas tax disparity

North Carolina's average gas price of $3.91 per gallon will cost drivers during holiday travel this Easter weekend.

Posted 9:00 p.m. Apr 5, 2012 — Updated 10:43 p.m. Apr 5, 2012

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's average gas price of $3.91 per gallon will cost drivers during holiday travel this Easter weekend. A year ago, the average in Raleigh was $3.64 per gallon. By the end of the month, prices could top out over $4 per gallon, according to AAA Carolinas.

But the price is not always equal on opposite sides of the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Drivers who cross the southern border of the state were paying an average of $3.73 per gallon Thursday.

Those south of the Triangle get a bit of a break. The lowest gas price on record in North Carolina Thursday as $3.84 per gallon in Fayetteville.

AAA said the $4 mark is a psychological threshold. When prices surpass it, drivers will start changing travel plans and consider alternative forms of transportation.

Driver Lyn Autry doesn't like it, but finds it's not worth complaining.

"We can't get along without it. (Prices need) to be more reasonable, and who can explain why they're so high?" Autry said.

Driver James Dean said he doesn't pay attention to the pump. " I just get what I get out of it. I don't want to know, to tell you the truth," he said.

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