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City councilman hopes to draw up new gas tax relief bill that ensures months long tax holiday

Councilman Garrett Dennis says he would like the new bill to include a 3-6 month gas tax holiday. It would save people in Jacksonville 5 cents per gallon.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In the winter Gov. Ron DeSantis announced legislation calling for a gas tax holiday for Florida that would take place for several months.

It meant you would not have to temporarily pay tax on gas, 26 cents per gallon to be exact.

Legislation passes, but only for one month, October 2022. Jacksonville city council member, Garrett Dennis, introduced a similar bill at the local level, but plans to vote to withdraw it at this Tuesday's city council meeting.

"The governor initially said it was going to be for several months, but when it went through the state legislature they only gave him one month so I decided to withdraw my bill because I think the relief needs to be longer than just that one month," Dennis said.

Dennis is confident his colleagues on the council with vote to withdraw the bill, but Dennis isn't going as far as repealing the gas tax entirely.

"I support the gas tax. Why? It's because it's going to fund needed infrastructure here in our city however during these times of high gas prices I think it's apparent upon us city leaders to give our citizens relief," Dennis said.

He added the gas tax brings in about a billion dollars for projects like the Emerald Trail, but those dollars can be replaced. As Dennis hopes he and the council can work together to achieve a local gas tax holiday for 3-6 months.

"We're going to hash out a perfect bill and the reason I say its a perfect bill is because my bill was written by just me just, my thoughts but you're going to have a collective body of council members and we're going to hash out a bill to forth to the entire council for maximum relief for the citizens of Jacksonville," Dennis said. 

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