ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is renewing a push to explore a penny sales tax to fund transportation needs.
In a memo to commissioners last month, Demings called for a discussion during a Feb. 6 meeting to see if there is interest in pursuing a potential transportation sales tax in 2024.
For years, Demings has backed a penny sales tax plan he says would fund road improvements, create a mass transport system, expand SunRail and add more buses to LYNX’s fleet.
In 2022, a transportation sales tax referendum was rejected by Orange County voters.
The measure needed to meet a 50%-plus-one threshold to pass, but only secured 42% of the vote.
Demings said the referendum failed because of various factors, including inflation, increases in housing costs and the impact of Hurricane Ian on more than 80,000 residents.
News 6 political expert Jim Clark said there are a number of issues working against another tax proposal.
“People don’t like taxes. They don’t want to pay taxes no matter what it’s for,” Clark said. “Second of all, there’s still people in Orlando having nightmares about the construction of what was supposed to be Ultimate I-4.”
Clark also said there would be difficulties for a sales tax proposal to make it to the general election ballot.
“Especially in an election year, there are going to be a lot of controversial issues, and I’m not sure they want one more controversial issue on the ballot,” Clark said.
Commissioners are set to begin an initial discussion of a potential transportation sales tax during their meeting on Tuesday.
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