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No more tolls for Florida residents? DeSantis floats the idea
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested eliminating toll road fees for Florida residents at a recent meeting, letting tourists and visitors pay those fees. It's an idea now. Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said a policy discussion has to take place first. It's just an idea for now, but all drivers FOX 35 talked to on Thursday liked the idea.
No more tolls for Florida residents? Gov. Ron DeSantis floated the idea Wednesday during the final Florida cabinet meeting of the year.
During the meeting, the governor suggested eliminating tolls for residents.
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Gov. DeSantis said that out-of-state visitors or tourists could foot the bill instead and give Floridians a "break."
"We’re knocking out taxpayer-supported debt, and I know that other people kind of have purview over this, but I’d love to be able to knock out the tolls and stuff that people are paying," DeSantis said. "Look, you could charge the visitors, and they could probably support it all and give our Florida residents a break," he said. "I think that would be really good."
"We’ll take a look at that, governor," said Ben Watkins, Director of the Florida Division of Bond Finance, in response to DeSantis’ suggestion.
DeSantis didn't provide details about how a new toll collection model would work.
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Florida's toll road
Florida has more than 700 miles of toll roads, according to state data. The largest toll system in the state is Florida's Turnpike, which consists of 483 miles of limited-access toll facilities.
The Turnpike system collected nearly $1.4 billion in operating revenue last year, according to a recent report from Florida's Turnpike System.
Tolls collected on the Turnpike and other toll roads are used to fund maintenance and operation of the toll roads. The money is also used for construction projects such as new highways or updates to existing roads.
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Previous measures to give Floridians toll relief
The state previously offered a one-year toll relief program. Under the program, Florida residents received a 50% credit on 35 or more toll transactions a month.
In its first year, the program benefited more than 1.2 million Floridians, with an estimated total savings of more $470 million, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. The program was extended last year and expired in March of this year.
The governor has also suspended tolls during emergency situations and hurricanes.
The Source: This article was written using information from the State of Florida, Florida's Turnpike and Florida's Department of Transportation.