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Milking Cash From Alligator Alley

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 28, 2008

Toll roads and bridges are one of the few links in the surface transportation system producing revenue. That's why the governor and Legislature are thinking about how they can dip into the stream of cash.

Borrowing the money, or directly leasing the road to private investors, would provide extra money to spend now without raising taxes. Taxpayers are right to be wary of schemes to lease money-making public assets to for-profit private companies. Such deals could bring higher tolls that for decades would flow out of state and possibly out of the country.

But a lease deal proposed by Sen. Dan Webster seems to benefit the state in two ways. He suggests leasing Alligator Alley to the $2.3 billion Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. The state would get a lump sum, say $500 million, to spend on much-needed transportation projects. The endowment fund would get a steady stream of toll revenue, perhaps bringing a better return than could be safely found elsewhere.

The Republican from Winter Garden correctly says the Alligator Alley investment, made from the state's tobacco settlement, would give Florida a way to invest in itself. The $2.50 toll for the 78-mile east-west road through the swamps of South Florida generates about $23.5 million a year, and the proceeds will grow if traffic increases or tolls go up.

The Alligator Alley deal, and any similar arrangement, must be crafted with care.

Webster is right that there is an advantge to keeping the lease deal within state government, rather than losing control to a group of international investors.

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