It's an effective strategy: Starve roads, ignore mass transit, tolerate sprawl and then complain the state cannot afford to meet the demand for transportation. The Florida House passed a bill Thursday the Republican majority preordained for years. It would allow investor-owned companies to lease existing toll roads and build new ones and charge users whatever they saw fit. The move drives transportation planning in the wrong direction and the Senate should resist it.

Tolls have a place in expressways and in areas where roads serve a niche demand. One benefit of public control is that expressway authorities keep a lid on rates and help ensure that local agencies meet their community's needs. But opening up the state's toll roads to private operators turns accountability on its head. The House bill would authorize private companies to lease existing facilities, with the exception of Florida's Turnpike, build new ones and increase their tolls at least every five years. The House estimates leasing Alligator Alley in South Florida could bring in $3-billion while the Sunshine Skyway would generate $8.2-billion. House Republicans, who passed the measure 74-40 along party lines, said the money could offset multibillion dollar deficits in the state's road work plan through 2025.

The question is: At what cost? Spinning off the roads to investors not only would put motorists on the hook for largely unregulated price increases but could allow private builders to drive land management decisions. Investors could take over the role communities and the state play in deciding where to build new roads, what densities to allow in areas near them and what priority other modes of transit have in the competition for funding.

What interest would the state have, for example, in investing in mass transit if a company under contract stands to suffer from the loss of toll road revenue? Would communities accept sprawl as a trade-off for private funding of this transportation infrastructure? Would this honey pot for roads drive larger decisions about where communities grow, what land is preserved and how early and fully the public can influence the decisionmaking process?

The Senate has yet to offer a companion. We had rather see a debate on raising the gas tax, Florida's transportation priorities and how the government can make mass transportation a better alternative. At the very least, the Senate should explore the broad policy implications put forward by the House bill. Privatization has hardly been a shining experience in Florida.

The Times recommends 

The Times has published recommendations for the two City Council races in Tuesday's municipal runoff election in Tampa. The race for Council District 1 is open to all registered voters citywide. Races are nonpartisan and winners are elected to four-year terms beginning April 1.

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1: Joe Redner

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 7 (NORTH TAMPA): Frank J. Margarella

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/24/Opinion/Wrong_direction_on_Fl.shtml