State transportation officials have said no to a proposed toll on the main road in and out of the Florida Keys.
A Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) official sent Monroe County Mayor David Rice a letter Tuesday stating that tolls should be used only to fund transportation projects, not wastewater upgrades, as the county intended for a proposed toll on U.S. 1.
"While we applaud your efforts to fund these critical projects, the Florida Department of Transportation is opposed to your plan to impose tolls on existing lanes of U.S. 1," FDOT District Secretary Gus Pego wrote.
Pego referenced a federal grant for which the county has applied; FDOT acts as one of the application evaluators.
"Since proceeds of tolling will be used for non-transportation improvements, rest assured that this application will not receive a high ranking," Pego wrote.
The county tried to secure the $240,000 grant last year, but the Federal Highway Administration denied its request, in part because FDOT gave it a low ranking, according to County Attorney Suzanne Hutton. The county is now taking a second crack at the grant.
The commission has been split on moving forward on the toll. Commissioners Sylvia Murphy and Kim Wigington voted against proceeding with the toll plans when the commission voted on moving forward on the grant last month.
Wigington said she could not support placing a toll on a road that is the only choice people have.
The only other option for drivers coming into the Florida Keys is Card Sound Road, which has a $1 toll the state and county use to maintain the Card Sound Bridge.
Murphy and other Upper Keys residents have not been supportive of the toll, as many Key Largo and Tavernier residents have to commute daily to Miami.
However, Commissioners George Neugent and Heather Carruthers and County Mayor David Rice voted to proceed with the toll plans. Rice and Neugent said they supported the study, but were not yet throwing their support behind the toll.
Carruthers has said the county should exhaust all avenues in search of revenue for wastewater projects. The county is under a tight deadline to have all of its homes and businesses connected to advanced wastewater treatment systems and does not have the money to complete all of the projects.
The deadline is December 2015. The county needs to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and is awaiting the allocation of $200 million from the state. In November, the county will ask voters to agree to extend a 1-cent sales tax that is set to expire in 2018.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
News.Yahoo.com - Visit DolphinsMotel.com
