Florida's controversial trio of planned toll roads and the expected state budget shortfall will give lawmakers a lot to prioritize during next year's legislative session.
The coronavirus pandemic and its impact on tax collections are expected to lower available general revenues by $2.77 billion in fiscal 2022 and by $2.05 billion in 2023, according to Florida TaxWatch, a statewide budget watchdog group.
Lawmakers will focus on crafting the next budget when their annual session starts March 2. Some have already said the three new toll roads may need to be reviewed in light of the budget crunch.
The toll roads, which would cover a total of 330-miles if built, received $45 million in start-up funding when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill creating the Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, or M-CORES, into law in 2019.
Some $90 million was appropriated in this year's budget for M-CORES, and lawmakers, who must allocate funding annually, plan to spend $135 million in fiscal 2022 and about $140 million annually through 2030.
Lawmakers also dedicated $1.1 billion from license plate tag revenues, which will be leveraged with bonds, although the estimated price tag to build the roads hasn't been determined.
Other dedicated funding sources for M-CORES include $35 million from Florida's Turnpike Enterprise beginning in fiscal 2023 and $5 million for the development of broadband in the toll road corridors, according to Kurt Wenner, vice president of research for Florida TaxWatch.
Authorized financing sources for the roads include turnpike toll revenue bonds, right-of-way and bridge construction bonds, bond issuance by the Florida Department of Transportation Financing Corp., advances from the state transportation trust fund, and public-private partnerships.
"We don't know how much they will cost," Wenner said about the road projects during a Tuesday webinar on M-CORES sponsored by 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit that concentrates on sustainability.
Wenner also said there are questions about whether there will be enough toll revenue to pay for constructing the roads. There have been several instances where traffic and revenue projections haven't turned out to be true, the most famous example of which is the revenue shortfall on the
Toll revenue bonds issued to build the 3.5-mile, two-lane bridge in northwest Florida have been in default since 2011 because the span never met traffic and revenue projections.
While the Garcon Point Bridge is small in scale, Wenner said it may serve as a cautionary tale for the proposed M-CORES' Suncoast Connector. It would extend the existing 60-mile-long tolled Suncoast Parkway, which runs from Hillsborough County to Citrus County on the west coast and has never met revenue projections, 150 miles north to the Georgia state line.
The other two M-CORES projects are the Northern Turnpike Connector, a 40-mile toll road linking the Suncoast Parkway with the Florida Turnpike, and the Southwest-Central Florida Connector that will slice through 150 miles in the rural heartland of the state from Lakeland to Naples.
Three task forces, one for each corridor, appointed by the state turned in
"Due to the early stage of planning...and the limited data and analysis on potential needs and impacts available at this time, the task force was not able to fully address its charge of evaluating the needs for and impacts" of the corridors, all three reports say.
"The task force did not reach a conclusion, based on the information available at this time, that there is a specific need for a completely new greenfield corridor or modifications of existing facilities through the study area," said the reports.
FDOT was directed by the task forces to establish at least a preliminary determination of transportation needs and initial financial feasibility before proceeding with the project development and environment study process.
Critics of the M-CORES program, including 1000 Friends of Florida, have decried the fact that it was ordered to be done by lawmakers in a political process, rather than a traditional study process by FDOT to determine the need for them.
Supporters of the projects include the Florida Chamber of Commerce and various road-building groups that have touted the economic benefits the routes will bring to rural areas, which include plans to install broadband internet service and sewer service especially in areas where homes still use septic tanks.
Huiwei Shen, chief planner for FDOT, said in Tuesday's webinar that the state agency is complying with the direction of the task forces and developing needs assessments for each of the toll roads.
"We're working on the framework for how this analysis is going to be conducted," she added.
Due to the impact of COVID-19 on state revenues, FDOT's budget has been reduced by more than $700 million requiring project and program cuts, Shen said, adding that the agency has enough funding to do preliminary needs and financial feasibility analysis of the projects.
The task force reports also request that state lawmakers tweak the law that orders M-CORES to go forward because too much study remains to be done.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7068 in May 2019, requiring FDOT to create task forces to study exact routes and costs.
SB 7068, however, states that “to the maximum extent feasible,” construction of the projects must begin no later than Dec. 31, 2022, and that the roads should be open to traffic no later than Dec. 31, 2030.
"Given the potential transformational impact of the M-CORES program on the future of Florida, the task force respectfully requests the governor and Legislature to consider adjusting or removing the deadlines for corridor construction and other milestones in statute to permit thorough analysis and additional thoughtful collaboration on all key decisions," all three reports said.
On Monday, Progressive Florida, a nonprofit advocating for social justice, economic fairness, public education, health care reform, and environmental protection, said most of the public comments submitted during toll road task force meetings did not support the projects.
"An overwhelming 93% of public comments during the recent toll road task force meetings opposed the roads," executive director Mark Ferrulo said in an email blast
The roads “would destroy large swaths of Florida’s remaining rural lands, pollute waterways, and decimate endangered species," Ferrulo wrote.
"These roads wouldn’t just be a financial and economic disaster," he wrote. "Once we start to pave over Florida’s remaining natural areas, there’s no going back. These Roads to Ruin are a recipe for out of control urban sprawl that will further strain our state’s water resources, contribute to climate change, and wreak havoc on wildlife and wilderness."
On Tuesday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group issued its sixth edition of the
The multi-highway construction project “would strain the state’s already overstretched budget in addition to impacting some of Florida’s last remaining undeveloped lands, threatening the endangered Florida panther with extinction,” PIRG said.
