Scrooges in City Hall had a chance to give the people of Jacksonville a nice Christmas gift Tuesday, but instead they said, “Bah, humbug.”
Only five members of City Council voted to repeal the recent local gas tax hike.
Those heroes are Rory Diamond, LeAnna Cumber, Al Ferraro, Randy DeFoor and Danny Becton.
The hefty, and unnecessary, tax was foisted upon the people earlier this year by a Republican mayor and a Republican majority on the council, who have been spending like the most voracious Democrats in the nation’s capital.
The new tax will double the amount of local tax on gasoline when it takes effect Jan. 1.
It comes at a time when gas prices already are soaring because of liberal attempts to destroy the fossil fuel industry and fuel their own wanton spending.
Local politicians will spend more than $8 billion next year – and still want more.
It is likely the spending spree will increase next year as a prelude to the city elections of 2023. When they go before the voters, politicians always like to boast about how much they have accomplished with money they have taken from the voters.
Doubling the gas tax will help pay for such “benefits” as a walking trail through the most crime-ridden parts of Jacksonville, keeping the white elephant Skyway Express alive and putting a huge “lerp” sign on a vacant lot downtown.
Cumber, who sponsored the tax repeal, said the city would get plenty of money from the endless federal government handouts, but 13 other council members were not persuaded.
Cumber noted that Jacksonville now will be taxing the maximum amount allowed and will no longer have the option of increasing the tax if money actually is needed.
Mayor Lenny Curry, who championed the tax increase for his own local “build back better” program, dragged out the old cliché that politicians employ when spending Other People’s Money, saying he was “investing” by paving roads and digging ditches.
Another reason for the nearly $1 billion tax increase is to free up other money for one of the biggest hoaxes in political history: the push to replace all septic tanks in the city, which is a huge and mostly unnecessary expense.
The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents a gallon. Florida adds another 28 cents and Jacksonville will top it off with 12 cents, a total of 58.4 cents for each gallon. While it is difficult to calculate, that likely is far more than the profit oil companies get for the product.
