Preserving our Trust, Advocacy Continues

Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with members of the Orlando Sentinel editorial board to share with them upcoming concerns and legislative priorities for Florida’s transportation building industry.

We all vividly remember the actions taken last year by members of the House to raid money from the state transportation trust fund in a knee-jerk attempt to balance the budget. The final $160 million posed to be taken out of the trust fund would have cost 11,000 Florida jobs. After a narrow victory by the Governor’s veto pen, we once again need to be vigilant to protect the trust fund and the road projects that put Floridians to work. Governor Rick Scott has pledged to create 700,000 jobs in the next seven years. Florida’s transportation industry will play an integral part in reaching this goal by producing 28,000 new jobs per every $1 billion invested.

As a result of our visit and sharing our thoughts, the Orlando Sentinel published an editorial called, “Our take on: A bright idea & No more trust fund raids” (Jan. 25) The article stressed the importance of protecting the trust fund because it “supports thousands of badly needed road and other transportation construction jobs.” You can read the entire column here: http://bit.ly/fqEtuq

Orlando Sentinel senior editorial writer, Victor Schaffner, also shared some of our thoughts in a subsequent column, “Another threat to transportation funding” (Jan. 25) where he discussed a recent suggestion from one of the Governor’s Transition Teams which recommended possibly combining various state agencies with the Department of Transportation into one super-agency. This could potentially become the newest threat to the trust fund by pressuring legislators to use transportation user fees to fuel the new super-agency’s projects. You can read the entire column here: http://bit.ly/eJSqhw

Transportation makes Florida work. It is essential to improving our economy and strengthening our state’s infrastructure. In order to ensure jobs are saved and new growth opportunities for businesses advance, the state must allow transportation projects to receive sufficient funding. We are confident Governor Scott will keep his campaign promise to ensure all user fees dedicated to the transportation trust fund are not used to fill Florida’s mammoth deficient. However, educating Floridians about the positive impacts of an adequately funded transportation system, which we rely on everyday, must continue. It’s never too early to start preparing for another attempted raid on the one true user fee that provides taxpayers with a tangible service. As drivers pay for gas, the added fees fund the road projects down the street. This clear connection makes the legislative robbery of trust fund dollars even harder to swallow.

As legislative committees begin to meet and start forming budget requirements and determine “cost-cutting” savings, we must prepare as an industry to protect transportation user fees. Until deficits begin to shrink, the real threat of trust fund raids will continue to climb.