Pasco County residents should expect to pay five more cents a gallon at the pump starting the beginning of next year.
A gas hike, now passed by the county, comes after months of exploring options that would best fund Pasco County roads.
Prior to the increase, county officials said it was difficult to keep up.
“We were faced with increased capacity without the funding,” said Assistant County Administrator for Development Services, Don Rosenthal.
Last year, the county had to pull $8 million out of its budget and spend it on just road maintenance.
“We were resorting to being more of a maintenance entity than an entity that kept up with growth because we didn’t have the funding,” said Rosenthal.
But now with the new gas tax increase, the county will able to collect $8 million a year.
This will put the county back on track with all of its 23 road projects.
Some of the projects here would have been canceled or delayed if the county didn’t find the funds.
Not everyone was on board with the tax hike. Commission chairmen Jack Mariano voted against the increase. He believes the county should have waited another year to generate revenue from the growing economy.
Pasco’s fuel taxes are the same as Hillsborough and Pinellas, and less than Hernando and Polk.