State budget solution may bump traffic fixes

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published September 10, 2007

The wait in traffic just may be getting a little longer. Um, a lot longer. Gov. Charlie Crist's plan to balance the state budget in light of a more than $1-billion shortfall includes the idea of tapping into state budget trust funds, including grabbing $225-million from the Department of Transportation.

The guy in the state Senate overseeing how that money is appropriated each year is Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

"It's dilemma time," Fasano said Friday afternoon. "It could be truly disastrous."

By sparing K-12 education from his proposed spending cuts, Crist put the focus on other areas, including health and human services, higher education and transportation. Crist recommended taking $225-million from a transportation trust fund financed by documentary stamp taxes on real estate transactions to fill budget holes elsewhere.

It's difficult to imagine that just two years ago, legislators passed an enormous growth management bill that included $1.5-billion to build roads, schools and utilities. Now, they will be asked to pilfer from some of the same infrastructure. The new plan is to reappropriate the DOT trust fund for five years, reducing the statewide transportation allocation by $1.1-billion.

This comes 10 months after the DOT delivered the sobering news of rising construction costs, forcing it to delay road-building projects. The list included widening two-lane U.S. 41 from Tower Road north to the planned extension of Ridge Road. The central Pasco highway had been pushed back previously because of the expense of buying the right of way for other state roads.

Expect more of the same, Fasano predicted, if the governor's targeted budget maneuvering is accepted by the Legislature.

"Who knows what kind of a work plan they (the DOT) will have to revise based on a $1-billion reduction," Fasano said. "There's a very good chance that State Road 56, which hasn't even begun yet, will be pushed way out there to long after I'm gone."

"Not only 56, but the State Road 54 widening," echoed Rep. Will Weatherford, who lives in traffic-choked Wesley Chapel. "Just because something is in the work program does not guarantee it's going to be funded. I'm very concerned and worried."

The Senate's desire for across-the-board cuts contrasts with the targeted spending reductions favored by Crist and leaders in the state House of Representatives. The failed negotiations led to the postponement last week of a planned special legislative session to balance the budget in the face of slumping tax revenues attributed to a housing slowdown.

But consider how that inability to govern looks to outsiders. Elected and appointed local government officials are exhausted from the workload and sometimes vitriolic negotiations to balance their budgets after Legislative-ordered spending cuts.

Yet those same legislators can't figure how to balance their own spending in an economic downturn.

It's not a good year to be a legislator. Homeowners' insurance premiums continue to rise despite a promised legislative fix. Property taxes have not dropped like a rock as the governor predicted after a special session to answer complaints about local tax increases from rapidly escalating property values. Now, the Legislature is at a standstill over its own unbalanced budget.

Imagine all the time Floridians will have to mull these developments as they wait in traffic congestion each day.

Dilemma time, indeed.

[Last modified September 9, 2007, 19:52:09]