With gas prices increasing, New Jersey lawmakers moved on Monday toward toughening gas gouging penalties that haven’t been changed since Franklin D. Roosevelt was finishing his first term as president. An Assembly committee released a Senate-approved bill to boost the state’s gas gouging penalty to as much as $3,000 per violation, compared to current law unchanged since 1938 that brings fines as low as $50. The bill can now be considered by the full Assembly. It was approved 35-0 by the Senate in February. Monday’s activity comes as the price for regular gas in New Jersey averaged $2.88 per gallon, up about 25 cents from a month ago, according to AAA. Nationally, regular gas averaged $3.07 per gallon on Monday. New Jersey law provides penalties ranging from $50 to $200 per violation for violating state gas pricing law. The proposal released Monday would increase those fines to $1,500 to $3,000. The state’s gas gouging law makes it illegal to, among other things, display and charge different fuel prices and change the selling price more than once in any 24-hour period. “New Jersey has strict laws governing the pricing and sale of gasoline, but the penalties for breaking those laws are weak,” said bill sponsor, Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union. “As the price of gas continues to climb, we need to ensure that greedy and opportunistic individuals don’t take it upon themselves to make a costly situation even worse.”