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Florida Democrats call for state leaders to tap into rainy-day fund and suspend gas tax<\/p>\n
The average price for a gallon of gas in Florida is nearing the $4 mark.<\/p>\n
The last time the state saw gas prices this high was all the way back in July of 2022.<\/p>\n
Now, Florida\u2019s Democratic lawmakers are calling for state leaders to the same thing they did last time: Suspend the state\u2019s gas tax.<\/p>\n
Floridians are feeling the pinch at the pump, as the conflict in the Middle East continues to drive up the price of gas.<\/p>\n
The average price for a gallon of gas in Florida is nearing the $4 mark.<\/p>\n
The last time the state saw gas prices this high was all the way back in July of 2022.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHurting pretty good,\u201d Duval driver Lauri Philip said.<\/p>\n But some said they\u2019re willing to wait out the pain.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were a lot higher three or four years ago,\u201d another driver, Dave Wilson, said.<\/p>\n When gas prices skyrocketed in 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis called for a five-month suspension of the state\u2019s gas tax.<\/p>\n In the end, the Florida Legislature approved a one-month gas tax holiday, which cut the price of a gallon of gas by about 25 cents that October.<\/p>\n Now, with gas prices climbing again, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) and other Florida Democrats are calling on their Republican colleagues to run back the playbook.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cSince the War in Iran gas prices in Florida have increased by at least around a dollar a gallon and so people could really use some relief right now,\u201d Driskell said.<\/p>\n The one-month holiday in 2022 cost the State of Florida roughly $200 million.<\/p>\n But Driskell argued the state could easily afford the cost, pointing to the state\u2019s healthy reserves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Governor\u2019s always bragging about our rainy-day fund. I would say to the Governor, sir, it\u2019s raining for Floridians right now,\u201d Driskell said.<\/p>\n Even with session technically over, the legislature still has an opportunity to act.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because state lawmakers still have to pass an annual budget, and along with the budget there\u2019s the annual tax package.<\/p>\n Back when the gas tax was suspended in 2022, lawmakers used the tax package as the vehicle to make it happen.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Floridians we spoke to at the pump said they\u2019d appreciate any relief they can get.<\/p>\n \u201cCause it would mean we save some money in our pockets,\u201d Philip said.<\/p>\n Even those who aren\u2019t panicking over prices at this point.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, every bit helps, but I\u2019m not that concerned with it,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n Action News Jax reached out to the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President asking if they\u2019d support including another gas tax holiday in this year\u2019s tax bill.<\/p>\n The Senate President declined to comment and we did not hear back from the Governor or House Speaker.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Democrats call for state leaders to tap into rainy-day fund and suspend gas tax The average price…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[91454,28,30,100,29,761,11248,91453,91455],"class_list":["post-197072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-dave-wilson","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-legislature","tag-florida-news","tag-free-action-news-jax","tag-gas-prices","tag-gas-tax","tag-gas-tax-holiday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197072","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=197072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}