JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 State lawmakers have agreed to a $146 million tax package, but demands for a gas tax holiday weren\u2019t accepted by Republican lawmakers.<\/p>\n
That was even after Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday he would agree to a suspension of the state\u2019s 25-cent gas tax if lawmakers included it in the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they put that gas tax holiday in, I\u2019ll happily sign it,\u201d said DeSantis. \u201dBut I don\u2019t want to promise people that if you do that, that somehow you\u2019re going to see a huge change for the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tax package sponsor State Representative Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville) said it was that concern that ultimately led to the decision to not move forward with a gas tax holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did seriously consider it, and I as the Ways and Means Chair really liked the idea,\u201d said Duggan. \u201dThe problem is, we don\u2019t have really any way, not just a good way, to ensure that the savings are passed along to the taxpayer, to the consumer,.”<\/p>\n
We traveled to Georgia, to put the assertion to the test.<\/p>\n
At the gas station we stopped at in Florida, 10 gallons of gas would have run you about $43.<\/p>\n
But just across the border in Georgia, where the state\u2019s 33 cent gas tax has been suspended since April, the same amount of fuel would have run you less than $40.<\/p>\n
According to AAA<\/a>, average gas prices in the Peach State were 34 cents cheaper compared to the Sunshine State on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The difference was almost exactly equal to the 33-cent gas tax in Georgia.<\/p>\n And Georgians like Dean Morgan told us they definitely feel like they\u2019re saving money at the pump.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, a lot of people before they go to Florida, they load up on their gas here,\u201d said Morgan.<\/p>\n House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) argued there is still an option remaining that could allow Floridians could reap those benefits as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that this is something that would actually help our neighbors. So, we do want to see the gas tax suspended immediately ,\u201d said Driskell. \u201dEven though it didn\u2019t make it into the tax package, this is something that the Governor could do.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about suspending the state gas tax via executive order in the past, the Governor has consistently maintained that only the legislature has the authority to make it happen.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/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 State lawmakers have agreed to a $146 million tax package, but demands for a gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11246,982,7840,121170,44843,91486,28,8853,1853,6281,91485,116,118,117,971,970,10417,634,121169,11103,45479,10418,61428,7842,54274],"class_list":["post-285735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-aaa","tag-action_news","tag-ben_becker","tag-dean_morgan","tag-democratic","tag-fentres_driscoll","tag-florida","tag-floridians","tag-georgia","tag-governor","tag-house_minority_leader","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jake_stowan","tag-local","tag-peach_state","tag-republican","tag-ron_desantiss","tag-state_representative","tag-sunshine_state","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-wyman_duggan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285735","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=285735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}