Florida is Ready to Deliver on a New Highway Infrastructure Program

The State of Florida has a message for the incoming administration of Donald J. Trump: When it comes to highway infrastructure, we know what to do, and we’re ready to roll.

That was the unmistakeable storyline last month when the “digital conversation starter” at the Orlando Sentinel, Michael Joe Murphy, conducted a wide-ranging Q&A with the former Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad, now a senior vice president at HNTB Corporation.

From new investments along the Interstate 4 corridor in central Florida, to highway improvements and completions in other parts of the state, Prasad described a system that offers the new Trump Administration all the elements of a win—a well-defined set of immediate transportation needs, backed by solid experience with successful infrastructure projects that have relied on a mix of private and public resources.

Getting the Results We Want

“Florida is one of the fastest-growing states and offers many opportunities for investments that will provide a good return,” Prasad told the Sentinel. “Florida is way ahead of other states when it comes to enabling legislation as it relates to public-private partnerships and other alternative delivery techniques. So, with that in place, Florida is able and ready to leverage any infrastructure plan by the new Administration.”

Asked why more conservatively-minded legislators should go along with a 10-year, $1-trillion infrastructure plan, Prasad was emphatic.

“The country deserves these investments, regardless who the president is,” he said. “Unfortunately, all good intentions get bogged down in details, the biggest of which is the continual (and worsening) imbalance between needs and the revenues needed to address them. Putting band-aids on the current system will not yield the result that we all want. It needs a transformational change, a change that should also address the roles of federal, state, and local governments in delivering infrastructure improvements.”

The Fairest System is User-Pay

Prasad envisioned a state transportation system 50 years from now that is multi-modal, transformed by technology, but still “predominantly centered around highways…allowing commuters to make decisions based on real-time data and a mix of modes that provides them with the shortest commute.”

And when Murphy asked why Floridians should welcome a new system that expands the state’s already country-leading inventory of toll roads, Prasad made a strong case for user financing.

“A toll is a user fee, and the users pay for the use of such facilities,” he explained. “Gasoline taxes and sales taxes attributed to transportation have served us well to improve the transportation infrastructure on a foundational basis. As we build upon that foundation, a user-pay facility such as a toll road provides for a more equitable way of funding infrastructure, especially new corridors, rather than burdening every taxpayer.”

Save the date and watch for details of IBTTA’s 2017 Summit on Finance, Policy and Vehicle Miles Traveled, April 23-25, 2017 in Jersey City, NJ.