Gas costs rise, but car expenses hold steady.

Byline: Margo Rutledge Kissell

Mar. 31--Real estate agent Donna Redmon puts up to 50,000 miles a year on her 1999 Olds Aurora.

The office manager for American Home Realty Inc. in Huber Heights spends a lot of time in her car -- and at the gas pump -- as she shows homes.

As gas hovers near $2.25 per gallon, she and other independent contractors feel the pinch.

In January, the Internal Revenue Service raised the business-mileage reimbursement rate on 2005 taxes to 40.5 cents, up 3 cents from 2004. Redmon plans to take advantage of that, hoping to recoup some of what she's pumped into her car.

Price fluctuations are frustrating, she …