Politics

Crist signs toll bill

The governor says the law can raise cash to fix state roads.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD AND STEVE BOUSQUET
Published June 21, 2007

Citing the Suncoast Parkway as an example of a useful toll road, Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill smoothing the way for the state and private companies to build more tollways in the decades to come.

Environmentalists opposed the measure, arguing that it would increase sprawl by encouraging unnecessary roads. Other critics said it would lead to higher tolls.

The new law also allows Florida to lease some existing toll roads - such as Alligator Alley and the Pinellas Bayway - to private companies for up to 50 years. The idea is to raise an immediate windfall of money to spend on other roads. Other states such as Indiana and California have tried this approach.

States are increasingly turning to tolls to build new highways because federal and state gas taxes no longer raise enough cash.

Crist said he signed the bill late Tuesday because it offers the promise of more roads in a state with a lot of traffic.

"The opportunity to have public-private partnerships that have appropriate oversight is a wonderful opportunity to stop congestion, " he said. "It's one of the most important things I think that people care about, that they feel on a daily basis."

The law calls for tolls to increase at least every five years to keep pace with inflation.

One sponsor defended that.

"We're going to have to have toll increases, " said Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, who chairs the Senate's Transportation Committee. "They need to be legitimate and reasonable - not just a profit maker - and should reflect the true means of maintaining that road."

It is not enough to simply keep pace with inflation, he said.

"For instance, if you allow tolls to go up at the rate of inflation, about 3 percent, it would take a 50-cent toll nearly 20 years before it doubled to a dollar."

The governor took the opportunity to once again distance himself from the Future Corridors plan, which calls for a series of nine massive toll roads crisscrossing rural Florida. Former Gov. Jeb Bush supported the proposal, but Crist says the state should instead fix existing roads.

"First, we must work to relieve the traffic congestion so many Floridians face every day, " Crist wrote in a memo accompanying his signing of the bill. "Expansion and improvement of existing roadways must and should take priority."

This cheered environmentalists who opposed the bill precisely because of Future Corridors.

"We know what the road builders want. They want a free hand to carve up Florida with ribbons of asphalt, " said Charles Lee of Audubon of Florida. "There still remains a very specific question: Whether Gov. Crist supports the Corridors plan or doesn't. Right now that plan is still alive and well and is being used by the state Department of Transportation."

The law also more than doubles what Florida's Turnpike Enterprise can borrow to build toll roads, raising its bonding cap from $4.5-million to $10-billion.

Chris Warren, the turnpike's deputy executive director, said the agency would first expand existing roads and doesn't have any new projects in mind. See accompanying box.

"There's been a lot of misconception that we're just going to run wild and build projects because of this increased bonding capacity, " Warren said.

The measure passed 37-2 in the Senate. It drew more opposition, mostly from Democrats who objected to the toll increases, in the House, which sent it to Crist on a 68-49 vote.

"The day we privatize our public roads and turn them over to private companies is the day we start selling this great state off, " said Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors. "It's going to be a big mistake."

Fast Facts:

Local turnpike projects

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise can now borrow more money to build toll roads. That will speed up one local project but won't affect two bigger ones, officials say.

The turnpike plans to fast-track building an interchange between the Veterans Expressway and Lutz-Lake Fern Road in north Hillsborough in time for a new high school opening there in August 2009.

This won't affect the widening of Veterans or the extension of the Suncoast Parkway through Citrus County - two unfunded projects on the drawing board.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 07:20:08]