JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Grab your wallet — gas is going up again.
The state gas tax holiday expired Tuesday.
The sales tax holiday has allowed drivers in Florida to fill up their tanks without paying the state’s 25.3-cent-a-gallon gas tax. The holiday, part of a broad tax package approved this year by Florida lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis, began Oct. 1.
With the gas tax now back in place, drivers will pay about a quarter more for every gallon they put in their tank. That means, if you paid $3.28 on Monday, you’d pay $3.53 on Tuesday. And, if you need to fill up from empty with a 14-gallon tank, you can expect to pay $3.50 more on Tuesday than you would have on Monday.
The change is eye-opening for drivers who weren’t expecting it.
“I feel like it’s crazy. I feel like it should not be going back up. We just had a big shoot up, and now we’re back down, and it should stay down,” said driver Kiauna Taylor.
Some Jacksonville-area gas stations still haven’t changed over to the new price, so you might get lucky. But on Tuesday morning, some members of the News4JAX team did see several in the $3.50 range.
People topping off their tanks said this will impact how they budget.
“Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do what you got to do and just find the money and shift things to get to work, do what you got to do,” said driver Michelleita Taylor.
Some Jacksonville-area gas stations still haven’t changed over to the new price, so you might get lucky. But on Tuesday morning, some members of the News4JAX team did see several in the $3.50 range.
When the state sales tax holiday was implemented at the beginning of the month, gas prices declined a total of 22 cents within a couple of days, falling from $3.39 to $3.17 per gallon, according to AAA. But the savings for drivers was short-lived.
“During the first week of October, OPEC announced plans to cut its oil production rate, which sparked a 17% oil price hike, raising the cost of producing gasoline,” AAA said in a news release Monday before the state gas tax holiday ended. “This ultimately dragged Florida gas prices back to where they were before the state’s gas tax holiday.”
According to AAA, gas prices for the month of October averaged $3.33 per gallon — about 6 cents less than the price on Sept. 30.
DeSantis originally recommended a six-month gas tax holiday, which would have meant $1 billion in lost revenue. State lawmakers instead opted to keep it in place through the busy summer tourist season. The state gas tax is used for transportation projects, and the one-month tax holiday approved was estimated to reduce revenues by about $200 million. The state plans to tap a surplus of general revenue to make up for the lost money.
As of Tuesday, according to AAA, the average price for gas in Florida averaged $3.29 per gallon. In Duval County, it was $3.26, AAA said.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, it was lower at $3.15 — one of the lower costs in the country. Georgia lawmakers suspended the state’s gas tax holiday in March. It has been extended a few times and is slated to expire next week — on Nov. 11.
Nationally, the average price for a gallon of gas jumps to $3.76.
Daily gas price averages can be found at gasprices.aaa.com.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.