CLEARWATER, Fla.-- Pinellas County, Fla., motorists will not have to pay an extra penny at the pump after all, county commissioners decided Tuesday, according to the Tampa Tribune.
A proposal to increase the county's local option gasoline tax from 6 cents to 7 cents per gallon to ease traffic congestion died after failing to gain the required supermajority vote from five of the seven commissioners, said the report. The tax increase was favored by four commissioners, with Bob Stewart, Calvin Harris and Ronnie Duncan dissenting.
The 20-year tax would have generated about $3.5 million annually toward a system of smart traffic signals designed to shorten waits at red lights and ease congestion along major corridors throughout the county, the report added. The traffic-adaptive system called for linking cameras to a computer system that would adjust the timing of lights to real-time conditions.
The commissioners, however, did approve extending for another decade the county's 6-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, which would have expired in August 2007.
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