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Florida's latest budgetary con game makes patsies out of those who drive the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Motorists wanting to traverse the bridge are forced to toss four quarters in the toll basket, but what they don't know is that part of their money is siphoned off and driven north, where it will be used to upgrade U.S. 19.
State Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, pronounces himself proud of this scheme. "We kick around ideas all the time about how to increase funding for transportation," he told a reporter. "We knew there were excess tolls, and the question became what you do with them."
Forgive motorists for thinking that eliminating the toll might be a possibility, or for having the quaint expectation that a toll paid on a bridge is used only to build and maintain that bridge. In the increasingly perverse world of modern Florida government finance, road tolls are the latest hidden tax. Under this approach, gas taxes are bad, but road tolls are good. So, 15 years ago, the Legislature decided to start using tolls from the Florida Turnpike to build other roads. Now, Sebesta has helped bring the shell game to the Tampa Bay area, on the Skyway and the Pinellas Bayway.
Call this fumes and mirrors, and don't search for any logic. Tolls are the least efficient form of taxation, requiring roadside attendants who stop cars on express roadways, often a quarter or two at a time. In some places, as much as 25 cents on each dollar goes to pay the people who collect the tolls. But the argument is that tolls are the ultimate user fee. Needless to say, that rationale evaporates when the state begins using a toll on one road to pay for the construction of another. That's a tax.
Road-building is already financed by a user fee. It's called the gas tax, and motorists don't have to stop in the middle of the road to pay it. But Florida politicians, including Sebesta, think they can create the illusion of lower taxes by hiking the tolls. Where this leads the state, and its motorists, is already clear. According to the most recent Federal Highway Administration statistical report, Florida is second in the nation in the amount of money it collects in road tolls. Seventeen states manage to build roads without any tolls, and only New York takes in more than Florida.
So slam on the brakes and dig in your pockets, Florida motorists. Just don't ask where the money is going.