We’re not even into the busy summer travel months and already the price of gasoline has risen by 20-cents the past two weeks. Drivers in Florida on average are paying $4.20 while the average price of gas in Georgia is more than 35-cents cheaper.
The gas stations at the Florida/Georgia state line on the Georgia side are jam packed, and there’s good reason drivers are filling up there. Georgians are paying significantly less than Floridians in gas, as average prices across the nation are creeping closer to record highs.
″I do get gas here before I go Florida.” Diamond Jones who lives in Georgia, but works in Jacksonville, said she makes it a point to gas up before she leaves the Peach State.
Unleaded gasoline at a Pilot station near the Georgia/Florida state line is right around $4, when Florida drivers are paying nearly 30-cents more.
″I think it’s going to continue to go up, I’ve seen drops here an there, and then it goes back up,” Jones said.
- The average price of gas in Florida today is $4.20.
- Gas was $4.08 just one month ago
- The average price for gas in Georgia today is $3.84
- Gas was $3.78 cents just one month ago.
Georgia’s gas is typically cheaper than Florida because Georgia has a state income tax and Florida does not. Georgia also has a 4% sales tax, that helps offset gas prices.
Another big thing that separates Florida from Georgia is that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill which suspended the gas tax, providing some relief for motorists″We tried to fill up before we got here, but it doesn’t get you too far,” driver Ryan Sciullo said.
Sciullo, who drove down from Pittsburgh, says it takes $90-$95 to fill up his pickup truck. Unfortunately, relief may NOT be on the horizon for him and other drivers --with the high price of crude oil, hovering near $100 a barrel last week, and now closing in on $110 dollars a barrel.
“It’s gone up tremendously, and hopefully they can do something about it,” Sciullo said
For some perspective, on March 11 of this year, drivers in Florida paid the highest recorded average price for unleaded at $4.33.