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Financial Woes
In fact, the governor's office later determined that 31 of the governments didn't meet the complex accounting criteria for emergency status. For example, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority made the list because of accounting treatment of depreciation, even though the authority is financially robust. Now a special task force is recommending changes in the law to allow local governments to talk their way out of trouble before being written up by state auditors.
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TAX MONEY
Paying For Roads
Florida's transportation boosters have embarked on a two-year campaign to speed up road-building by an extra $1 billion a year.
The money would go toward narrowing a huge and growing gap between the state's road-building budget and its highway needs. Especially acute is the problem of the state's jammed east-west highways, says Jane Mathis, the Florida Transportation Commission's executive director. Florida has always done a good job of moving people down here and back on superhighways, transportation leaders note, but has been less effective at facilitating ordinary day-to-day traffic.
Up to $350 million could come from increased federal appropriations to Florida, which historically has been shortchanged in Congress. But the biggest chunk of the money - as much as $700 million a year - likely would come from a state gas tax increase of up to 10 cents per gallon.
Does a gas tax increase have a chance in the current political environment? Unapologetic sponsors know it probably faces better odds than a tax increase for something the state needs even more - a better-educated work force.
"Education obviously is more important," admits Don Crane, a former Pinellas legislator who's now president of the privately funded Floridians for Better Transportation. "But transportation probably comes back quicker in terms of economic benefits."
Adding to the appeal is the now shiny reputation of the state's Department of Transportation. That's due mainly to the work of Secretary Ben Watts, a drawling ex-West Pointer who has turned the department around since an overspending scandal in the late 1980s. In the process, he's become probably the most popular state agency head among both Republicans and Democrats.
But the strongest argument lies in the numbers. Transportation Commission members tout a recent study showing that the highways carrying 70% of Florida's heavy truck traffic will get less than 25% of the money they need to keep up with demand through 2010 - about $6 billion compared to a $28 billion need.
An even more dramatic illustration of the problem: Florida's vehicle-miles on state roads increased 83% from 1980 to 1995, while supply of lane miles rose by only 18%, according to the study: Over the next 15 years, vehicle miles will increase by 58% and supply of lane miles by only 10%.
This year, many Florida officials are pushing Congress to change the shamefully politicized formula it uses to allocate federal gas-tax dollars. They say Florida gets back only about 80 cents of every dollar the state sends in - far less than most other states - because other states gang up to take money away from Florida and other states where tourists generate a lot of gas tax revenues. Florida wants to increase that to 95%. That could generate up to $150 million or so extra on the federal money the state gets each year. The state could pick up even more if Congress decides to start spending more gas tax money on roads instead of on deficit reduction, where it's going now.
Another possibility being pushed by Sen. Connie Mack and others would repeal most of the 18.3-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax and leave it to the states to re-enact that tax themselves. Florida would gain $200 million extra a year right away if that happened, because of the punitive formula Congress now uses.
Then next year, Florida transportation boosters expect to go to the 1998 Legislature with a request for increased revenues, probably through a state gas tax increase. A 10-cent-per-gallon increase phased in over several years has been discussed. But the exact size of the request - and even the type - won't be known until this year's congressional campaign ends, probably in late fall. A 10-cent increase would generate roughly $700 million annually.
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Towns Tap Telephone Business
In an odd echo of frontier-Florida days, a few of the state's municipal governments are quietly moving into the local telephone business. Of course, 100 years ago cities often were the only ones willing to put up the investment for expensive utilities. These days, hard-pressed cities are just hoping to make a few extra bucks.
The state's 1995 telecommunications deregulation act authorized municipal involvement in the business. So far, the Gainesville regional utility authority and the city of Lakeland have gotten permission from state regulators. Now some local phone companies, already stretched by new competition from long-distance and cable companies, are worried that local governments will take advantage of their status to undercut everyone. They're backing a bill by Rep. Jerry Maygarden, R-Pensacola, to force cities to pay the same taxes phone companies do on telephone service.
Maygarden, a former mayor of Pensacola, says he doesn't want to wipe out city-provided phone service. But he questions whether it's an appropriate role for local governments to play: "If you accept the principle that government needs to be limited in size and scope, and if you support free enterprise, then the last thing you really want to do is say to the high-tech telecommunications industry, ?We want you to come to Florida, but at the same time we're going to allow a competitive advantage to accrue to local governments.'"
Cities and counties already are under attack for the taxes they tack onto the bills that phone companies send out to commercial customers. Florida's bevy of local taxes helps make the state's telecommunications tax rates among the highest and most complex in the country. Florida also appears to be unique in exempting residential service from its state sales tax, analysts say.
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Tallahassee Briefs
Former House Speaker Peter Rudy Wallace has joined the law firm of Annis, Mitchell, Cockey, Edwards & Roehn. He'll open the firm's Tallahassee office. Wallace served as speaker from 1994-96, representing a district in St. Petersburg. He previously was with the Tampa-based firm of Trenam, Kemker, Scharf, Barkin, Frye, O'Neill & Mullis. Annis Mitchell has offices in Tampa, Fort Myers, Naples and Tallahassee.
Robert M. Rhodes, the genial guru of land-planning regulation at Steel, Hector and Davis' Tallahassee office, has joined St. Joe Corp. as senior vice president/general counsel. Rhodes has old-school ties with St. Joe's new chairman and chief executive officer, Peter S. Rummell: Both are former Disney development executives. Rhodes was senior vice president of Arvida/Disney Corporation and Disney Development Co. before joining Steel Hector. St. Joe is the largest private landowner in the state with more than 1 million acres, or 3% of Florida's area. The company, once focused on forest products and utilities, has decided to pursue more development in an effort to generate shareholder value.
