{"id":235446,"date":"2026-04-17T10:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235446\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:16:13","slug":"desantis-could-give-floridians-a-break-with-gas-tax-cut-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235446\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis could give Floridians a break with gas tax cut \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u00a0Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0has never been shy about embracing tax holidays<\/a>. During his time as governor, he and the Legislature suspended the state sales tax repeatedly on supplies for school and also for hurricanes and other disasters. Last year, he came up with a new one: He declared a \u201cSecond Amendment\u201d tax holiday covering guns, ammunition, camping and hunting supplies.<\/p>\n

At the time, he said the state was \u201ccommitted to helping\u00a0Floridians keep more of their hard-earned money.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, when gas is over $4 a gallon in most places<\/a> in\u00a0Florida, he\u2019s trying to shut down any talk of suspending the state tax on gas.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s puzzling because DeSantis has been an enthusiastic supporter of tax relief. He\u2019s even pushing an extreme proposal to abolish property taxes. Or maybe it\u2019s not so puzzling: Legislative Democrats are the ones asking him to temporarily lift the state\u2019s 23.5-cent-a-gallon tax on gas.<\/p>\n

If his opposition stems from politics, he\u2019s being short-sighted. Gas prices hurt everyone, not just one party. He\u2019s a term-limited governor who may be running for office again. Voters will remember if he didn\u2019t even try to ease the pain at the pump. And yet, so far, he has refused to back the idea. Instead, he\u2019s saying it\u2019s an issue\u00a0for\u00a0Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy answer is just get the cost down internationally, and that means having stable energy markets, making sure we\u2019re doing everything to get our stuff to market,\u201d DeSantis said last month. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s going to be any simple fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right to a certain extent \u2014 the war on\u00a0Iran\u00a0is President Trump\u2019s problem to own. Suspending the state gas tax won\u2019t solve the problem, but it would provide some relief. Even if gas prices continue to go up and down with the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iranian conflict, we\u2019re betting most Floridians would welcome even a small break.<\/p>\n

The price of gas is no joke. Back on\u00a0Feb. 28, before the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0began its war with\u00a0Iran, gas in\u00a0Florida\u00a0was about $3 on average, according to\u00a0AAA. But the conflict has driven the price up, with the\u00a0state average\u00a0now at about $4.20 a gallon. Miami-Dade County\u2019s average was about $4.15 as of Wednesday,\u00a0AAA\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to understand how the governor can say tax relief is in order on guns, ammo or property \u2014 but not on gas. And it\u2019s not like he would be alone if he did it:\u00a0Georgia\u00a0Gov.\u00a0Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, suspended the state gas tax for 60 days until\u00a0May 18. Officials there said the\u00a0two-month suspension\u00a0of the 33-cent tax would save Georgians as much as $400 million.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has said fluctuations in oil prices could blunt the impact of any suspension of the gas tax. That\u2019s a thin reason \u2014 even if it\u2019s true. Gas costs are a bread-and-butter issue for many families. If there\u2019s anything the state can do to help, it should. If\u00a0Georgia\u00a0is any guide, the consumer savings could be significant. Members of\u00a0Congress\u00a0are also\u00a0considering suspending\u00a0the 18-cent per gallon federal tax on gas.<\/p>\n

Florida\u00a0actually suspended the gas tax not that long ago, too. In 2022, DeSantis successfully pushed for a month-long gas tax holiday. Of course, that was when\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0was president, DeSantis was still seeking another term as governor and the state used federal COVID funds to cover the costs.<\/p>\n

Legislators and the governor will have a chance very soon to consider doing that again.\u00a0The Legislature\u00a0has to meet, likely in mid-April, to pass a budget, after lawmakers failed to do that in the regular session that ended in March. Lawmakers could consider a gas suspension measure along with the rest of the budget package.<\/p>\n

But what really makes this hard to stomach is the governor\u2019s full-throated support for tax relief of another kind. Let\u2019s get this straight: The governor wants to do away with most property taxes \u2014 perpetually. But he\u2019s opposed to suspending the gas tax, a far smaller measure, for a few months. We understand tax relief at the pump may seem like a small thing. But for regular people who have get the kids to school or commute to work, a little relief would go a long way.<\/p>\n

This editorial originally appeared in the Miami Herald. The Sentinel sometimes republishes editorials that reflect our overall point of view. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u00a0Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0has never been shy about embracing tax holidays. During his time as governor, he and the Legislature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2853,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-235446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-editorials","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235446","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=235446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}