Even legislators were surprised in November when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story that the state tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would go up 3.8 cents a gallon effective Jan. 1 without their help.

It happened automatically, like their annual cost-of-living increases, due to a complicated, little-known provision of the Oil Company Franchise Tax. The 1981 law imposes the tax on fuel at the wholesale level, but the oil industry passes it on to you, the consumer, in the price you pay at the pump.

Last year, for the first time in years, wholesale gasoline prices jumped significantly above the 90-cent-a-gallon "floor" in the law, or the minimum amount on which it's based. Consequently, this year's 3.8 -cent gasoline tax adjustment was calculated on an average wholesale price of $1.17 a gallon.

I know you won't be surprised when I tell you that, effective Jan. 1, the tax will be based on the "ceiling," or maximum amount of $1.25 written into the old law. Be glad we have a ceiling, because gasoline prices have gone through the roof.

Ergo, the total state tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, which was 26.1 cents a gallon last year and 30 cents a gallon this year, rounded up by the state Department of Revenue, will go up another 1.2 cents next year. The total tax includes the state's flat tax of 12 cents a gallon.

So drivers will be paying a total tax of 31.2 cents a gallon for roads, bridges and a half-dozen other transportation-related uses such as payments to municipalities for local streets and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for expansion projects.

That's more than an extra nickel a gallon, a 16 percent increase, over a two-year period, almost $1 extra for the average fill-up.

That's probably enough to make us No. 1 on the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Motor Fuels Taxes chart which, in all fairness, does not count some taxes we're lucky not to have, such as a 7.25 percent sales tax on gasoline in California, a 5- to 10-cent-a-gallon county tax in Nevada, and "local option taxes" which add an average 13.4 cents to Florida's 14.5-cent-a-gallon state gasoline tax.

Everybody also pays an 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax.

In West Virginia, a tax similar to Pennsylvania's on the wholesale price of gasoline is expected to add at least 1.5 cents a gallon to its 27-cent state gasoline tax Jan. 1.

Make that was expected.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has promised to sign an executive order before year's end to stop the scheduled increase, saying the savings, while small, will, nonetheless, lighten the burden on drivers.

The National Taxpayers Union recently asked Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and state lawmakers to go further.

Kristina Rasmussen, spokeswoman for the anti-tax group, with 20,000 members in Pennsylvania, wrote Rendell:

"NTU encourages you to permanently lower state gas tax rates or provide temporary relief through a 'gas tax holiday.' Millions [of dollars] for pay hikes and not one penny for fuel tax relief won't sit well with Pennsylvanians who are already fed up with the political establishment."

Rendell and the state Legislature are not likely to lower the gasoline tax for many reasons, including:

Retail gasoline prices are dropping and, at $2.79 to $2.99 a gallon around here last week, they seem like a bargain compared with $3.19 to $3.39 two weeks ago.

As mentioned, the Legislature has tapped Oil Company Franchise Tax revenues for many other uses over the years, though not for pay raises. Not yet.

PennDOT has not had a legislated revenue increase since 1997, when lawmakers not only raised the Oil Company Franchise Tax by 38.5 mills but also increased license, motor vehicle registration and other fees to generate an extra $400 million a year.

PennDOT needs more money to help compensate for inflation in the transportation industry and to pay its own higher bills for fuel and materials, including asphalt.

Rendell has a nine-member Transportation Funding and Reform Commission to assess highway, bridge and transit needs and recommend how to fund them. Its report is due Nov. 15, 2006, just after the general election.

The commission will conclude that the Oil Company Franchise Tax increases should be permanent. If it doesn't recommend adding yet another 5 cents a gallon to the gasoline tax, it'll find other ways to get your money.

You read it here first.

Breaking down gasoline prices. When the average national retail price of gasoline was $1.56 in 2003, state and federal taxes in Pennsylvania represented 28 percent of the price.

Two weeks ago, when regular gasoline prices peaked at around $3.29 a gallon, state and federal taxes amounted to less than 15 percent of the total.

Some might argue that you saved money.

But back to 2003, when gasoline averaged $1.56:

44 percent of the cost, or 69 cents, went for crude oil.

15 percent of the cost, or 23 cents, went for refining costs and oil refinery profits. The cost varies from region to region because of different government-mandated formulations of gasoline , according to the Energy Information Association.

13 percent of the cost, or 20 cents, went for distribution, marketing and retail dealer costs and profits.

Ergo, 69 cents + 23 cents + 20 cents+ 44 cents tax = $1.56 a gallon.

Elsewhere. Houston Metro union workers voted two-to-one to accept a contract that will bring senior bus drivers up to $19.21 an hour and those hired after June 1, 1999, to $15.99 an hour in the third and final year. Bus drivers in Oceanside, Calif., approved a four-year contract that will give bus drivers a maximum of $21 an hour at the end.

Believe it! The Port Authority's approximately 3,000 union, management and administrative employees used a total of 23,215 sick days costing $3,858,326 in wages last year.

Plate du jour. Alan Tignanelli, of North Versailles, wanted to know, "Is that a pledge, a plea or celebration?" after he spotted the Pennsylvania personalized license plate NOMOKDS while biking at Cedar Creek Park in Westmoreland County.