JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 With the penny set to go the way of the Dodo bird, state lawmakers are looking to ensure there\u2019s a uniform standard for rounding to the nearest nickel. <\/p>\n
Action News Jax told you last month<\/a> how some major corporations like McDonald\u2019s are already developing their own rounding systems for cash payments. <\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Either way you slice it, someone stands to lose a few cents per-transaction.<\/p>\n And those pennies stack up quick, with the National Restaurant Association estimating universally rounding down could cost their members $13 to $14 million a month.<\/p>\n Local consumers we spoke with shared their two cents, and had differing views.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it would be more convenient to round up. Just cause we still have nickels,\u201d Jasmine Smith said.<\/p>\n RELATED: Time for change: Final penny pressed at Philadelphia Mint<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRound down for sure for people. You know, help them out as much as we can,\u201d Hadeel Sweatt said.<\/p>\n But Florida lawmakers are proposing a statewide standard.<\/p>\n New bills filed in the House and Senate would require businesses to round down to the nearest nickel for cash transactions that end with a one, two, six or seven and round up when the total ends in a three, four, eight or nine cent digit.<\/p>\n RELATED: Some restaurants are rounding change after the production of new pennies ended<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis is in the best interest of consumers and of business because it says with certainty this is when you round in this particular direction and ensures fairness and consistency,\u201d said Samantha Padgett with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.<\/p>\n Padgett favors the idea, particularly because it mirrors federal legislation dubbed the \u201cCommon Cents Act.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing a state the size of Florida pursue and possibly pass and enact this type of legislation will encourage our Congressional delegation to support this type of legislation. And we hope that it will help a federal solution to progress,\u201d Padgett said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The consumers we spoke with were split on the government mandating a rounding solution, with some feeling it would make things simple.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some of it is, you need consistency. Right? If I\u2019m going in to spend, knowing what you\u2019re going spend and how much you\u2019re going to spend is always a benefit to the customer,\u201d Josh Sweatt said.<\/p>\n Others favored allowing businesses to decide whether or not to pinch their pennies.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n \u201cI mean it\u2019s their prices. So, consumers are going to still buy what they want to buy and what they don\u2019t, they won\u2019t,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n The clock is ticking for policymakers to implement a solution. <\/p>\n Padgett said while it\u2019s unclear when pennies will officially run out, businesses are reporting their allotments of the copper-colored coins are already dwindling.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 With the penny set to go the way of the Dodo bird, state lawmakers are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,56192,56195,28,56194,5052,969,116,118,117,971,44784,10417,634,7472,56196,56193,4214],"class_list":{"0":"post-109896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-american_restaurant_association","10":"tag-common_sense_act","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida_restaurant_and_lodging_association","13":"tag-house","14":"tag-jack","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","17":"tag-jacksonville-news","18":"tag-jake","19":"tag-jake_stofan","20":"tag-jake_stowan","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-mcdonalds","23":"tag-pagett","24":"tag-samantha_pagett","25":"tag-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}