JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority have been meeting with City Council members about a possible increase and extension of the local gas tax that would pay for a $930 million list of transportation projects.
Curry said Tuesday the city has been able to pull together bigger capital improvement project budgets in recent years, but "we still have a long way to go and a lot to catch up on, and a lot to invest."
The city now has a 6-cent local gas tax in Duval County and can go as high as 12 cents under state law. Thirty-one of Florida's 67 counties use the maximum 12-cent rate, including Clay and Nassau counties, according to JTA research. St. Johns County is at 6 cents.
In Duval County, the 6-cent tax raises about $30 million per year.
The city and JTA have compiled a proposed list of projects that would be paid for with a doubling of the local gas tax. The multi-year list covers dozens of projects in the areas of road construction and maintenance, drainage improvement in road corridors, sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and transit.
Rafi Yazji is the co-owner of Snack and Gas along Powers Avenue in San Jose and says he understands the money is needed for road improvements, but he already hears many customers telling him they're strapped for cash.
“We already have to pay federal taxes and state taxes, and on top of that, we don’t hear the end of it from customers as a whole," Yazji said.
“Gas is already going up. We’re probably going to hit $3 probably by May," Ryan McLean said.
Ryan McLean says the proposed gas tax increase would cost him an extra dollar each time he fills up.
“I’m definitely against it," McLean said. We already have a federal gas tax. We already have a state gas tax.”
Curry said the gas tax is a widely spread type of tax because visitors also pay it when they fill up in Jacksonville, as do residents from neighboring counties who drive into the city for work and other activities.
"Somebody at some point is going to have to stare this down and find the resources we need to invest in this city," he said. "It's (a question of) when and how big and what source, and I would suggest this is the most painless source."
The list of proposed pro pencils in $102 million toward road resurfacing in the coming years. Among transit projects, JTA proposes to spend several hundred million dollars on the downtown Skyway system and purchase a second boat for the St. Johns River Ferry service.
The gas tax also would indirectly enable the city to "go big" on phasing out septic tanks, Curry said.
Curry said by applying revenue from a higher gas tax to transportation projects in the city's capital improvement program, that would free up tax dollars for other backlogged needs like extending sewer service to neighborhoods that have relied for decades on septic tanks.
A majority of Jacksonville City Council would have to approve an increase in the gas tax. Curry said he does not have a definite timeline for when he will bring legislation to City Council for a vote, but said he would like to have that debate and decision before he presents his proposed 2021-22 budget in the summer.
“At this particular time, I’m a yes vote. I’m excited that we’re trying to be forward thinking. I think it’s going to be good for the City of Jacksonville to be able to improve the infrastructure throughout the whole city," Councilman Reggie Gaffney said, (D) District 7.
“I’m a no. I certainly understand and respect the fact that Mayor Curry is trying to take on infrastructure, but I’ve never supported a tax increase or fee increase, and I’m not going to start today," Councilman Rory Diamond said, (R) District 13.
The current average price for regular gas in the Jacksonville metropolitan area is $2.75 per gallon, a price that includes the city's current 6-cent per gallon local gas tax, according to AAA Auto Club South. Doubling the local gas tax would add another 6 cents to the price motorists pay per gallon at the pump.
The city and JTA would share 50-50 the additional money that would come from extending the current 6-cent gas tax and adding another 6 cents to the levy. Over a 30-year period, that would raise an estimated $539 million apiece for the city and JTA, for a total of about $1.08 billion.
JTA CEO Nat Ford said the projects financed by a higher gas tax will prepare Jacksonville for growth "that is inevitable over the next 30 years."
"We need to make sure our foundation is strong for our transportation infrastructure and we need to be somewhat visionary," he said.
JTA would direct its share of the gas tax money for transit projects such as modernization of the elevated Skyway structure in downtown, making hundreds of bus stops compliant with Americans with Disability Act standards, and putting in place the "complete streets" concept that designs road corridors for motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders.
The single most costly JTA item involves the Skyway system of elevated tracks and stations in downtown. JTA wants to eventually retire the Skyway trains and replace them with smaller automated vehicles that would travel the elevated structure and at street level.
The list shows JTA would spend $378 million to rehabilitate that existing system and make it ready for autonomous vehicles while also expanding the Skyway network into the downtown area neighborhoods of Riverside and Five Points, the sports complex, the Springfield neighborhood and UF Health Jacksonville, San Marco, and a route into the Southside.
"The Skyway obviously had its challenges over the years, but it clearly is an asset for downtown going into the future if we're truly to develop downtown," Ford said.
JTA also would use the additional revenue to bolster the St. Johns River Ferry Service, which now operates a single boat between Mayport and the Heckscher Drive side of the river. The service must shut down for weeks or months when that boat is in drydock for repairs. JTA would purchase a second ferry boat and build dockage for it at an estimated cost of about $16 million.
Jacksonville has had a 6-cent local tax since the city enacted it in 1986 for an original period of 30 years.
When voters approved the $2.2 billion Better Jacksonville Plan in 2000, the city agreed to let JTA get the revenue from the local gas tax in exchange for the Better Jacksonville Plan using a portion of JTA's half-cent transportation sales tax, which the agency has had since voters approved that sales tax in a 1988 referendum.
City Council agreed in 2014 to extend the local gas tax for another 20 years so instead of expiring in 2016, it continues until 2036. As part of that extension, JTA and the city agreed the city would get 1 cent of the 6-cent tax for its own transportation projects and JTA stepped in to take over operation of the St. Johns River Ferry.
The discussion among Curry, JTA and City Council would leave that 5-1 split between JTA and the city in place through 2036 for the existing gas tax. The talks have looked at adding another 10 years to the time frame for the current 6-cent tax and shifting in that decade to a 50-50 split between the city and JTA.
The discussions for adding another 6 cents to the gas tax have been about putting that increase in place for 30 years. The city and JTA would do a 50-50 split on the revenue from that increase in the gas tax.
Curry has previously resisted raising the city's tax rates by saying the city should work within existing rates.
He said the discussions about increasing the gas tax grew out of meetings that started a year ago when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Jacksonville and he met with business leaders and heads of the city's independent authorities about how to use public works projects to stimulate jobs.
"The idea that elected officials shouldn't change their minds or evolve on issues or solutions to me is insane," he said. "If you're not evolving or changing your mind in your family or your business, you're not going to be getting along with anybody or getting anything done."
He said that with two years left in his term, the discussions of the gas tax increase fits into his goals for stabilizing the city's budget and ramping up infrastructure spending when he ran for mayor in 2015.
He said voter approval in 2016 for extending the existing half-cent Better Jacksonville Plan sales tax to help pay down the city's huge pension debt helped move the city into a stronger budget position where it could tackle backlogged projects..
He said that while Jacksonville's economy is doing better than some might have predicted a year ago when the pandemic hit, additional investment in infrastructure paid for by the higher gas tax "is about jobs for a very long period of time."
"While this wasn't where we were headed a year ago or two years ago or three years ago, we always had the strategic plan to have stable budgets that can fund projects we're supposed to be doing," he said. "This was a natural idea born out of that strategy."
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