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Expressway agency may face disbanding

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published August 29, 2006

TAMPA - State lawmakers drafting a bill to create a regional transportation authority said they may try to disband the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

"I truly believe that it may not be necessary to have an independent authority like the Expressway (Authority)," said Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. "I haven't been impressed with the Expressway (Authority). They keep saying they're in great shape financially. That's something we could find out if this new regional authority were in charge of it."

Fasano and Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, are sponsoring a bill that would create an authority with the power to finance transportation projects across a region that includes Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties.

The lawmakers spoke Monday to more than 200 government officials and business leaders at a meeting organized by the Tampa Bay Partnership, an economic development group promoting the creation of the authority. It's necessary, supporters say, because Tampa Bay doesn't have the ability to plan and build large-scale projects across political boundaries.

Galvano said he needed to study whether the Expressway Authority should remain or be absorbed by the new regional authority.

"We may just merge them together," Galvano said.

Created in 1963 as a quasi-governmental agency to oversee the construction of toll roads in Hillsborough, the Expressway Authority built the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway and recently finished work on the Crosstown's elevated lanes to Brandon. It was the oversight agency for the Veterans Expressway, which was built and paid for by the state.

The authority's executive director, Ralph Mervine, said a beltway project in Hillsborough and three other counties and a toll road in New Tampa are already planned by the Expressway Authority. Abolishing it would set back those projects and the areas that need them, he said.

"It would make sense to continue with the Expressway Authority," he said.

[Last modified August 29, 2006, 01:11:25]