New Jersey residents will be getting a little relief in their wallets when the state’s gas tax decreases.

The Murphy administration announced that the tax will go down by 8.3 cents on Oct. 1. That decrease is in accordance with a 2016 state statute that requires funds to support New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund.

“That takes us right out of the Top 10 in the country in the highest of gas taxes, which is a good status to lose,” says Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon.

Former Gov. Chris Christie wanted the state to borrow $16 billion to fix roads and bridges. The state lowers or increases the gas tax each year depending on how many people are driving and how much the state is taking in to pay the money back.

“This money has been spent already. This is about paying our loan back,” McKeon says.

Republican state Sen. Mike Testa took to Facebook last week to express his frustrations over inflation and rising gas prices.

“There's been an 8-cent decrease in the gas tax that the Murphy administration is parading around, but that doesn't make up for the 9.3 cent tax increase they imposed last year during the pandemic,” Testa says.

New Jersey is in an election year. Republicans like Testa say that other recent tax increases are evidence that the state is heading in the wrong direction.

“This is sort of a shiny object to get the people to look at, but we have to replace the reality of the fact that property taxes are higher, income taxes are higher and business taxes are higher,” says Testa.

“These are monies that just need to be paid back, as opposed to any kind of election-year gimmick. So as usual the governor won't get any credit for this,” says McKeon.

Assemblyman McKeon says the average driver will save $60 a year. The average is based on a driver burning 700 gallons of gas a year.