Senate bill gores M-CORES but doesn’t derail multi-billion Florida toll road plan
(The Center Square) – A controversial multi-billion decade-long plan to build 330 miles of new toll roads is running out of fumes in Tallahassee with a fast-tracked measure to significantly scale it back ready for Senate adoption.
Senate Bill 100, filed by Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee in a 17-2 vote on March 18 and is set to be introduced onto the Senate floor as soon as this week.
Spearheaded by former Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, lawmakers in 2019 approved SB 7068, a preliminary authorization of the Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance (M-CORES) plan, Florida’s most ambitious road-building proposal in more than a half-century.
Supporters include the Florida Chamber of Commerce, builders and business interests who say M-CORES will boost rural economies, alleviate urban congestion, improve evacuation routes and install internet services in underserved areas.
M-CORES outlines the construction and extension three toll roads through $1.1 billion in license plate tag revenues to finance a bond that lowest estimates peg at $10 billion:
A 150-mile Southwest-Central Florida Connector from Lakeland to Naples.A Suncoast Connector, a 40-mile span linking Florida Turnpike and I-75 with Suncoast Parkway.A Northern Turnpike Connector extending Suncoast Parkway 150 miles north to Georgia.
SB 7068 allocated $45 million to create three task forces to study M-CORES’ plan for the three toll roads, $90 million for M-CORES in this year’s budget, $135 million in FY22 and $140 million annually through FY30.
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ FY22 budget request, M-CORES could receive up to $700 million in various forms of funding next year.
That’s too much money, Harrell told the Senate Appropriations Committee. Even though the state is receiving nearly $10 billion in federal aid that can address pandemic-induced shortfalls, M-CORES is too big a ticket item as the state recovers from the pandemic, she said.
“I think when you have a $2 billion shortfall in the state of Florida, it’s time to re-evaluate everything,” Harrell said.
SB 100 would nix annual M-CORES allocations and scale back the project itself to only include the Suncoast Highway extension to Georgia while addressing congestion on Interstate 75.
“We have 1,000 people a day moving into Florida,” Harrell said. “You can’t not build roads. The question is where do you build them? How (do) you build them? Are they financially feasible?”
M-CORES fostered massive opposition during 18 months of statewide hearings. An 80-member ‘Roads To Ruin’ coalition issued a “declaration of war” against it as financially unfeasible and environmentally devastating.
The three task forces created to study each of the proposed toll roads could not justify the need for them. Florida TaxWatch called on the lawmakers to defund M-CORES before it becomes a $10-to-$26 billion “boondoggle.”
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, cast one of the two dissenting votes against SB 100 because it doesn’t have a kill switch or impose environmental safeguards demanded by Floridians.
“I take no joy in voting no,” he said. “Sometimes if we all vote yes, maybe we lose momentum on how we can, you know, still improve a bill.”
Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Fort Lauderdale, and Rep. Ben Diamond, D-St. Petersburg, have filed companion bills calling for M-CORES’ to be repealed and money committed to it directed into the general fund. Polsky’s SB 1030 and Diamond’s House Bill 763 have not been heard.
Harrell’s SB 100 does not have a House companion and its fate in the lower chamber is uncertain. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s (PIRG) claims in its annual Highway Boondoggles report that M-CORES funding “is virtually veto-proof” under SB 7068.
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