GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The new year means higher gasoline prices, thanks to a 5-cent per gallon tax increase in Florida’s Alachua County, reports The Gainesville Sun.

To offset the cost, dealers plan to pass the cost on to buyers “quite quickly,” writes the newspaper.

“Ultimately it works its way into the cost. It just depends on how fast or what the competition does with it,” Pete Sodini, chairman and CEO of The Pantry Inc., told the newspaper, adding, “I will tell you a 5-cent increase in a business where last year we made 10 cents on the gasoline margin, it will get in quickly for us and everybody else.”

The extra revenue generated by the gas tax is expected to bring in $5.5 million a year, of which the county will get about $2.8 million. Seventy-five percent of the revenue is going to road resurfacing, 15 percent on alternative surfacing for graded roads and 10 percent on sidewalk and bike projects, writes the newspaper.

Retailers are already concerned that some Alachua County residents will cross into neighboring counties to purchase their fuel, which Sodini said had happened when Volusia County raised its gas tax.

“We tracked it for the better part of a year. Does it influence consumer behavior? My God, yes,” Sodini commented, adding, “People who live next to the county line – what would you do for a nickel more a gallon? You are going to migrate across the line. Over time, the difference weakened.”

Lewis Bohannon, an independent operator show has owned Bohannons 1 Stop for 29 years, said it’s hard enough for a smaller retailer to compete, but he may opt to “lag” before increasing his prices. He told the newspaper that he believes people who drive out of their way to save a few pennies per gallon and avoid the tax increase are wasting time and money.

“We’re not pumping much right now. I’m selling for about what they are charging me for it,” Bohannon told the newspaper, adding, “As much as this stuff costs, you’re crazy to drive two blocks (out of your way). You’re wasting your car, your time, your tires. That’s really silly.”