A Times Editorial

U.S. 19 funding must be retained

There are many expenditures in the proposed state budget for 2002-2003 that would improve life in Pinellas County.

But one -- more than $81-million worth of upgrades to U.S. 19 in North Pinellas -- would save lives, and that is why those expenditures should survive when Gov. Jeb Bush starts sifting the chaff from the budget approved by the Legislature.

Bush has 15 days to exercise his line-item veto power over the budget legislators sent him. Each year Bush works with great relish to slash what he considers to be pork from the budget. In 1999 and 2000, he vetoed more than $300-million worth of expenditures each year; and he cut almost that much last year, offending legislators from both parties who had promised money to support various causes back in their home districts.

Many of those budget items deserved to be cut; and many do this year, too, especially because there are glaring needs in education, social services and the environment.

But when Bush finishes his work this year, the appropriations for U.S. 19 must remain intact. U.S. 19 is so dysfunctional that people are being hurt and killed on it in appalling numbers. A massive infusion of cash to transform the road into a limited-access highway is essential.

State and local officials have been talking for years about the need for that transformation. They have tantalized U.S. 19 drivers with stories about how, someday, overpasses would send traffic flowing above the troublesome intersections where traffic now clogs at rush hour. But there never seemed to be enough money; and as the cost of acquiring right of way for overpasses escalated to outrageous levels, the dream seemed out of reach.

That is no longer true. The budget proposed by legislators includes $42-million to build overpasses and service roads at Sunset Point Road and Coachman Road, two intersections where traffic is particularly prone to back up and where lives have been lost in accidents. Add that to the work on a Drew Street overpass scheduled to begin this fall, and the image of a U.S. 19 freeway comes more into focus.

This year's total state budget appropriation of $81-million also includes $25-million funneled from the federal government for the road, plus $1.3-million for U.S. 19 sidewalks in Tarpon Springs and $13-million for resurfacing parts of the highway.

The result of all that new spending, plus money already allocated for projects under way, is that U.S. 19 is likely to be under construction for the next eight years, warns County Commissioner Karen Seel.

It will be a hassle. But it will be worth it.

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