Average gas price in Ohio drops to $3.75

Average gas price in Ohio drops to $3.75

COLUMBUS

Ohio gasoline prices have dropped more than 20 cents in the last week, providing some relief to motorists as the summer travel season approaches.

Monday’s survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express puts the statewide average price for regular-grade gas at $3.75 a gallon, down 6 percent from last Monday’s average of $3.98.

Prices for oil and gasoline are sliding amid signs that demand for fuel has fallen after prices peaked in early May. Unleaded regular hit an all-time high at Ohio gas pumps of $4.16 on May 4, according to AAA.

The state’s average was just $2.63 a year ago during the run-up to Memorial Day, the traditional start of the summer driving season.

In the Youngstown-Warren area, gas Monday afternoon averaged $3.81 a gallon for regular-grade gas, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge report.

Chrysler to repay government loans

MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said Monday that his company will save $300 million in interest a year when it repays $7.5 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans today.

Chrysler plans to announce the repayment at a Detroit-area auto assembly plant this afternoon. Ron Bloom, the Obama administration official who oversaw the restructuring of the auto industry, is among those scheduled to attend.

Marchionne has said that Chrysler is eager to pay back its loans in part because of the governments’ high interest rates of around 12 percent, which cost the company $1.2 billion last year.

Tax cheats among stimulus recipients

WASHINGTON

Thousands of companies that cashed in on President Barack Obama’s economic- stimulus package owed the government millions in unpaid taxes, congressional investigators have found.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report being released today, said at least 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations that received more than $24 billion from the stimulus effort owed $757 million in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2009, the end of the budget year.

The report said the tax delinquents accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 63,000 contractors and grantees examined and cautioned that the real number might be higher because the known tax debt does not measure such factors as income underreporting.

Feds seek to derail H&R Block deal

BOSTON

The Department of Justice is trying to halt H&R Block’s plans to acquire the creator of TaxACT software, saying the deal would leave just two major competitors in the do-it-yourself tax-preparation market.

The agency filed an antitrust lawsuit Monday arguing that the transaction would eliminate a strong rival of H&R Block Inc. and Intuit Inc., maker of such programs as Quicken and TurboTax.

Staff/wire reports