Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated he would be in favor of a gas tax holiday if the Florida Legislature agrees to it during the course of budget and tax discussions in special session.
“If they put it in the tax package, I’ll happily sign it,” DeSantis said while taking questions at a press conference in Jacksonville this week.
However, Gov. DeSantis noted being skeptical of it bringing relief for Floridians at the pump. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gas in the state was $4.47 on Friday as the U.S. continues its conflict with Iran. That is $1.30 cents more than the average price a year ago to the day.
The last Florida gas tax holiday was in 2022. According to the Florida Department of Revenue, the state's gas tax is approximately 38 cents per gallon altogether.
"When we did that last time, I think the legislature was less than impressed on the results, and quite frankly, we weren't as happy, because what happened was the tax would go down, but then the gas stations largely raised the price," DeSantis said. "The analysis that was done after that said the consumer, if you take the total amount of tax cut, that it was about 17% that actually went into consumer pocket, and the rest was effectively just subsidizing the gas stations, and so that's kind of the problem with it."
Gov. DeSantis also worries gas prices could still be going up for the summer months, negating possible real relief.
"I don't want to promise people that if you do that, that somehow you're going to see a huge change for the positive in the price," DeSantis added. "I don't think that that's the experience, and I also am just mindful of what are the projections given what's going on in the global supply of oil for fuel prices over the summer, and unfortunately, if you look at the analysis, a lot of people think that they still have a lot of places to go up, and that will really be, I think, a big problem for a lot of people."
On affordability, Gov. DeSantis suggested providing relief for Floridians through a property tax cut. DeSantis has pushed for a property tax special session before the end of July.
Gov. DeSantis also suggested providing relief through a reduction in commuter tolls. Florida had a toll reduction for frequent drivers until March 2025.
