Wichita ? Motorists everywhere are feeling the pinch of gasoline prices hovering around $2-a-gallon, but Kansas drivers may be suffering more than their counterparts in surrounding states.

State taxes make gasoline consistently more expensive in Kansas than in most nearby states, except for Nebraska.

This weekend the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Kansas was $1.99 compared with $1.91 in Oklahoma and $1.93 in Missouri, according to AAA’s fuel gauge report, which was updated early Saturday.

Kansas taxes gasoline 24 cents a gallon and 26 cents on diesel. Colorado levies 22 cents on gasoline and 20.5 cents on diesel, Missouri 17 cents on both, and Oklahoma 16 cents on gasoline and 13 on diesel. Only Nebraska’s gasoline tax is higher, at 24.5 cents on gasoline and diesel. Some states also charge a special environmental fee that varies. Kansas currently charges a penny a gallon for gasoline and diesel to clean up pollution from service stations, raising Kansas’ tax to 25 cents for gasoline and 27 cents for diesel.

The taxes are deposited in a highway fund used to repair old roads and build new ones.

Residents of Oklahoma and Missouri get to vote on whether to raise fuel taxes.

That’s a bad idea, according to Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, chairman of the Senate transportation committee. He said people will usually reject a tax increase, and that would leave Kansas’ roads in poor shape.

“A lot of the states around us wish they could do something to improve their roads and highways,” Donovan said. “Kansas is the envy of the states around us.”

But Kansas has used the fuel tax money for other needs in tight budget years.

“They have taken loans from the state highway fund, which includes the gas tax,” said Krista Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation. This year though, the Legislature did not spend highway money elsewhere and took steps to protect money intended for roads, she said.

Nationally, on average, 24 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline is taxes, 44 percent is crude oil and 32 percent is refining and marketing, said Ed Cross, the executive vice president for the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Assn.

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Take the 25 cent Kansas tax and add the 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax (24.4 cents on diesel), and consumers are paying 43.4 cents a gallon for taxes.

Some consumers assume that gas station owners are making huge profits when prices go up, said Jim Selenke of Parker Oil.

But Selenke, whose company operates the Mini-Stop convenience store in Haysville, said early last week that his cost was $1.95 a gallon and that he was selling for $1.99 a gallon.

“So I’m only making 4 cents a gallon,” he said. “I didn’t even make enough to refill the tanks at the current price.” He also said he has to pay a 3 percent fee on each sale paid with a credit card. That eats into profits, he said.

The industry constantly fights “the difference between Kansas and Missouri and Oklahoma, especially on the borders,” said Tom Palace, executive director of the Petroleum Markets and Convenience Store Assn.