From the CPA Accounting wing of The America's Small City Mayor Government Center!!

I am going to introduce an esteemed colleague and life long friend Dan Laatsch to my blog. He is a CPA in Wisconsin, but is an economist at heart. He has been submitting some good information lately for my blog, so I want to give credit where it is due.

I should also note I have issued a full pardon to him because he is from Wisconsin. I felt this would be acceptable to my readers because he was educated in Minnesota before returning to Packer Country. We do however still require his papers at the Minnesota border as an ongoing precaution. We hope to get more material from him soon and THANKS DAN!!

The host of one of the local talk shows I listen to has a web page that is updated daily with articles he covers during his show. He also has links to a few other good websites. It can be found at http://www.belling.com/.

In light of Shell and BP posting record profits and cost per gallon of gas reaching $4.00 per gallon, I did a little research and math this afternoon. I looked at where that $4 goes. Here are my results:

$2.20 cost of crude (55% cost of gas)
$0.51 taxes ($0.184 federal tax and $0.321 state tax)
$0.40 refining cost (10% cost of gas)
$0.35 distribution and local station costs (I admit this is plug figure)
$0.30 cost of ethanol being hire than gas and required being blended
$0.24 oil company profit
$4.00 total of all costs