The JAX Chamber board of directors endorsed a proposal by Mayor Lenny Curry and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to increase and extend Duval County’s local option gas tax to pay for nearly $1 billion in infrastructure projects.
In a news release April 22, the Northeast Florida business membership group announced its board voted unanimously to support the gas tax legislation filed this week by City Council President Tommy Hazouri at Curry’s request.
The release also reaffirmed the chamber’s support for JTA’s plan to expand and modernize the Downtown Skyway that the authority calls the Ultimate Urban Circulator.
JTA officials propose spending nearly $372 million in gas tax money to fund the $415.96 million U2C project.
In the statement, chamber officials cite $930 million in road, sidewalk and bridge projects and other infrastructure improvements that would be funded by the tax as one reason for the support.
JAX Chamber Chair Henry Brown echoed the Curry administration’s pitch that the tax also is a jobs creation bill to help curb the impact of COVID-19 and to complete city and JTA projects.
“This investment will not only make needed road and infrastructure improvements, (but) it will also put people to work and create jobs in our community,” Brown said in the release.
“The time is now. As business leaders, we need to get behind this proposal and I thank Mayor Curry and JTA CEO Nat Ford for their leadership.”
Frees up money
State law allows Florida counties to collect a gasoline tax from 6 cents up to 12 cents per gallon to pay for transportation-related infrastructure projects.
Duval County is one of 12 counties in Florida to levy 6 cents. Nearly half of Florida counties collect 12 cents per gallon, according to the chamber
Although a local option gas tax would impact most of Duval County’s socioeconomic demographics, the chamber board says revenue from the tax also will be generated by nearly 100,000 drivers who live outside Jacksonville and commute into Duval County for work.
Curry officials worked with the Council Auditor’s office to determine the gas tax would free about $300 million in the city’s general fund that Hazouri and Curry support using to remove aging septic tanks and connect underserved neighborhoods to city sewers.
Hazouri and Curry also filed a companion bill April 21 that would authorize $100 million over two years freed by the added gas tax for neighborhood septic tank remediation.
Curry officials agreed to file the septic tank legislation concurrently to show the administration was serious about tackling Duval County’s estimated $2 billion failing septic tank problem, according to Chief of Staff Jordan Elsbury.
Curry proposes spending more on septic tank phaseout than the initial $100 million, but Elsbury said April 21 that officials want to leave contingency funding for the infrastructure projects, anticipating inflationary impacts and increasing labor and materials costs.
U2C and the tax
Curry and the chamber support JTA’s Skyway conversion to a 10-mile network for elevated and at-grade tracks for automated vehicles.
However, the plan has met with public and Council criticism.
“JTA is a national leader in autonomous vehicles and incorporating them in our downtown is one more step in building the innovation ecosystem we need to attract more tech investment to our city,” Brown said.
Two-thirds of the gas tax money generated would be spent on road, bus stop, drainage, bridge and other countywide infrastructure repairs.
The legislation would extend the sunset on Duval County’s existing gas tax from 2036 to 2046 and split the 6 cents equally with JTA for the final 10 years.
If approved, motorists would start paying the added 6 cents beginning Jan. 1 for 30 years. Diesel-fueled vehicles will be subject only to a 1-cent increase, according to the bill.