Happy New Year, Pennsylvania. Now pay up.

The current gasoline prices around Butler County are about $2.45 a gallon. Out of the cost of each gallon, 18.4 cents is federal tax. Another 50.4 cents is Pennsylvania state tax.

Only $1.76 of your $2.45 actually pays for the gas. The rest is tax.

And beginning Jan. 1, you’ll pay another 8 cents in state tax. Your $1.76 gas will now cost you $2.53 instead of $2.45 — in the state that already has America’s highest gasoline tax.

There might be some justice or logic in the increase if it strengthened the state’s financial standing in any way. But it won’t. State tax revenue is lagging $250 million to $300 million behind budget projections — and that’s for a fiscal year that began July 1 and is only half-done. The year-end deficit is projected at $600 million. And at the going rate, The Legislature’s nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office says, the deficit will mushroom to $1.7 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2017.

The dire fact is this: government spending in Pennsylvania continues to spiral out of control, and tax increases won’t make a lick of difference if government keeps spending the money faster than we can earn it.

The Legislature got it half-right this past July when it hammered home the message to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf that tax increases — particularly the sweeping increases Wolf proposed — were not realistic. By large bi-partisan margins, both chambers of the Legislature rejected Wolf’s proposals to increase the income and sales tax. But the House and Senate did allow the increases in the gas tax, along with a dollar-per pack increase in the cigarette tax.

It’s not enough simply to cap taxes.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, says state government must undergo major changes, such as consolidation of agencies or outsourcing human services safety-net functions to nonprofit agencies.

“What are the core functions of government, how do we deliver those services,” Reed said in an interview this week, suggesting the Legislature’s focal point for change. “What does a government apparatus look like that can deliver those same services ... under the actual revenues that we have?”

There’s no arguing the necessity to rein in spending in pension programs for employees of state government and public schools. There’s no denying that savings can be found in Medicaid spending and “corporate welfare” incentive programs. And it’s ludicrous to say we can’t cut the costs of the Legislature itself, which at more than $300 million a year is the nation’s second-most expensive.

Pennsylvanians are tired of the confiscation of their income and a an ever-rising price on their property to cover the runaway expense of government. We’re growing tired of being nickled and dimed in the gas tank and liquor cabinet or every time we light up a tobacco product.

We’re already paying $300 million a year for state government, and we’re assuming that’s enough money to expect efficient and effective operations. It’s time we got our money’s worth.