Cabinet Members in Our Corner

From the start of this legislative debacle, FTBA was confident the state’s leadership would see the certain negative impacts of stealing transportation funding to balance the state’s ever growing budget deficits. Thus far into the fight to keep 85,000 transportation contracting jobs safe, both Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have pledged their support and called on members of the House of Representatives to stop raids on the State Transportation Trust Fund.

Approximately three week ago, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink sent a letter directly to my attention which also highlighted the importance of keeping the State Transportation Trust Fund intact:

“…I fully support using the State Transportation Trust Fund for the purpose in which it was established: to pay for transportation projects. Any other use of these gas tax dollars breaks faith with our citizens…I join with the members and leadership of the FTBA in opposing any raid on the State Transportation Trust Fund. Legislative leaders should be encouraging quick job growth by protecting the funding of state transportation projects, not raiding the piggybank.” Full letter can be found here.

This week, Attorney General McCollum wrote House Speaker Larry Cretul and stated:

“While I understand the need to find dollars and using some trust funds may be suitable, it is important that the Transportation Trust Fund be spent on highway construction right now to help create as many jobs as possible…Sweeping the state Transportation Trust Fund would only compound the challenges we face, not alleviate them…The dollars accrued in transportation-related user fees should be left to fulfill their original objective, not used to fill unrelated budget gaps.” Full letter can be found here.

In addition to the support of AG McCollum and CFO Sink, Governor Charlie Crist has traditionally not encouraged raids on trust funds. We need his support more than ever – the people’s Governor must step up and do what’s in the best interest of the people. We encourage Governor Crist to veto any legislation that comes to his desk that attempts to raid the State Transportation Trust Fund. We hope you encourage him to do the same – call Governor Crist today at (850) 488-7146 and tell him there is too much at stake to steal from the State Transportation Trust Fund.