Lawmakers have proposed to take $69 million from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority and add it to the state budget.
Early Monday morning, budget negotiators agreed that the authority should turn over the money it was banking on for an anticipated road project. Now the project might be dead, and the head of the authority is most unhappy.
The state taking our money for a statewide purpose isnt consistent with our mission, said executive director Joe Waggoner.
The House and Senate have been at odds over the Houses proposal to take $450 million from the State Transportation Trust Fund to fill a hole in its version of the state budget. It since has been cut to $160 million.
As negotiators worked against the clock Monday to fix all the unresolved state budget issues, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, proposed taking money from the authority for the state. It may delay local projects, but it wont kill the agency that funds Tampa Bay roadwork with toll money.
It will not cause them to be insolvent, he said.
Waggoner said it will make the authority abandon a 1.5-mile expansion of a road on a Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway bridge.
The $69 million, which the authority won in a recent lawsuit against a project designer, would have been used to pay off a $60 million state bond and take out a new $60 million bond for the project, Waggoner said. The Authority had planned to expand the road from four to six lanes as it was completing a re-decking project.
Now, it may only be able do the re-decking and, at the very least, postpone the expansion. The authority had budgeted more than 1,400 jobs for the project and was working with the Florida Department of Transportation on it, and the budget proposal was unpleasant news, Waggoner said. He said the costs of expanding the road will just go up the longer the project is put off.
FDOT spokesman Dick Kane said the department had no hand in the budget proposal and the Legislature acted on its own.
We were surprised, he said.
Although Alexander said negotiations have ended on the subject, Rep. Rich Glorioso, R- Plant City, said he wants the funds to remain in the authoritys pocket for the traffic projects.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, was upset the proposal was added to the budgeting process at the final hour. He said he doesnt even know if the state has the authority to take the money and plug it into the budget. FDOT didnt sign off on it, he said, and hes not sure he will either.
You have a good budget, and now you have some bad language, he said.
