On March 18, Jacksonville, Fla., Mayor Lenny Curry, along with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, proposed raising the Local Option Gas Tax to fund nearly $1 billion in infrastructure and transportation improvement projects.
Curry said the plan would create a long-term solution to fund some of the city’s backlog of infrastructure needs.
“The Jobs for Jax program includes extending and increasing the already existing gas tax, a tool already in use by many of our neighboring counties and other major cities in Florida to fund infrastructure needs,” Curry wrote on his blog. “These funds are used for infrastructure projects like the one on Collins Road, projects that improve the daily quality of life for our citizens. We are proposing to extend our current six-cent tax and are also advocating for an additional 6 cents, that is currently charged by our neighbors in Nassau and Clay Counties, and in other major metropolitan areas in the state.”
Curry said the city’s lack of investment in infrastructure over the years has created a backlog of projects that need to be completed, and while progress has been made since he took office in 2015, there is much that still needs to be done.
The proposal would have the city fully leverage the Gas Tax like many other major Florida cities, providing additional funds for transportation and infrastructure projects. Over 30 years, he wrote, the gas tax would raise nearly $1 billion for infrastructure needs – an investment that would create thousands of jobs.
“With these funds, we will move quickly to begin work on as many transportation projects in the Capital Improvement Plan as we can, which means more construction jobs, safer and better-quality roadways, and more economic opportunities for our neighborhoods. And by using these proposed funds to pay for them, we’re freeing up dollars to invest in other priorities,” he wrote.