Leasing plan would hike Florida road tolls

Florida officials may lease Alligator Alley and other state toll roads and bridges to private investors.

The Associated Press

11/26/2007

Faced with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, Florida officials are considering selling 50-year leases on Alligator Alley and other state toll roads and bridges in exchange for large sums of cash from private investors.

In a preliminary study, the Florida's Department of Transportation estimated a 50-year lease on Tampa's Sunshine Skyway Bridge could be worth $1.3 billion if investors were allowed to set tolls at ''market rates.'' Alligator Alley could bring in $1.3 billion as well, according to the estimates.

The study used the example of the SunPass toll, which would double in the first, fourth and 10th years of the deal, climbing from 75 cents to $5 within a decade on the Skyway.

Leasing Alligator Alley — Interstate 75 from West Broward to Naples — could bring in $500 million to $1.3 billion depending on how high the toll could rise, either to $6.75 or $10 in the first decade.

Florida would follow the lead of other places including Indiana, Chicago and San Francisco, which have made billions from similar deals to sell road leases to private entities. Florida's $8 billion-a-year road construction budget faces challenges such as declining gasoline tax revenue and higher costs.

''We won't do it unless it is good for the state,'' Gov. Charlie Crist has said.

Opponents worry Florida drivers could get a raw deal over the long-term because private investors would make big profits from expensive toll hikes. And they fear privatization could hurt the poor.

''Take Alligator Alley. For many people, that's the only way to go from east to west Florida and vice versa,'' said Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “It would be controlled by a private entity that could raise tolls ad nauseam. It could make it unaffordable for people to travel.''

A law passed this year allows Florida to lease roads operated by the Transportation Department, but not by Florida Turnpike Enterprise. The turnpike system's roads, including the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Parkway, can't easily be leased because they're all part of a system that's tied together financially.

That leaves four roads: Alligator Alley, the Sunshine Skyway in Tampa Bay, the Pinellas Bayway and a stretch of the BeachLine Expressway (formerly the Bee Line) in Central Florida.

But the upkeep costs of the Tampa Bay area's toll bridges would lower the price that investors would be willing to pay for them. Officials say Alligator Alley, the long road through the Everglades, could be the most lucrative choice for privatization.

For the Skyway, a more politically palatable deal would raise tolls by 50 percent starting in the first, fourth and 10th years, rather than doubling it. In a decade, Skyway drivers would be paying $3.50 in cash or $2.50 via SunPass. More hikes would follow in the next 40 years.

Rep. Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, co-sponsor of the legislation this year that allowed the leasing of toll roads, said it wouldn't make sense for companies to raise tolls so high that drivers would avoid the roads.