Board members learn overall road construction deficit about $1.7 billion
Sarasota County has a road construction deficit of about $1.7 billion, the county commissioners learned this spring from a consultant hired to work with the county’s Transportation Department.
Yet, the county’s forecast revenue for such projects is anticipated to be $573 million from 2027 through 2039.
One option they have expressed interest in as a means of gaining more of the needed revenue is an extra half-penny of sales tax, with all of the funds dedicated to road construction.
Of the money that will be available from current sources, Katie Habgood, a certified planner with Patel, Greene & Associates LLC of Tampa, noted, 66% would come from the county’s latest penny sales tax program, Surtax 4, which the county’s voters approved in 2022 for the period of 2025 through 2039.
Mobility fees would make up another 17%, as shown in Habgood’s slide, with gas tax revenue expected to add 11%. The remaining 6%, she said, would come from a variety of sources, including grants.
That figure was in the background last week as the board members discussed their interest in taking a look at revising the list of projects approved for funding out of the county’s Surtax 4program. (See the related article in this issue.)
On April 22, the board members did affirm that their top seven road priorities had not changed, in response to a question posed by Transportation Department Director Spencer Anderson.
A slide displayed on maps what Anderson calls the “Seven Connect” group:
The projects, with more details, are as follows:
- The River Road Regional Interstate Connector, which entails the widening of South River Road and Winchester Boulevard — 7.2 miles — from U.S. 41 to the county line.
- The widening of Laurel Road from two lanes to a four-lane divided route from Knights Trail Road to Jacaranda Boulevard, for a total of 1.4 miles.
- The 2.3-mile East Manasota Beach Road Extension from 0.6 miles east of State Road 776 to the county line; it would be a two-lane road.
- The south extension of Lorraine road from Clark Road to Knights Trail Road, a distance of 8 miles.
- The widening of 1 mile of Bee Ridge Road to a four-lane divided route between Bent Tree Boulevard and Lorraine Road.
- Lorraine Road North, a new four-lane divided road between Fruitville Road and Palmer Boulevard, which is a distance of 2 miles.
- The widening of Fruitville Road from Debrecen Road to Lorraine Road, a distance of 1.4 miles.
A ‘Menu of Potential Funding Sources’
Anderson explained to the board members that staff brought in Habgood, who works with a number of Southwest Florida communities, to evaluate all of the county’s existing road needs “and how to pay for them.”
That included identifying future road needs, Habgood added. She did acknowledge, “We’re making high assumptions,” with estimates of those initiatives based on comparisons with projects in other communities.
“The needs outweigh the revenues,” she told the commissioners. “That’s true everywhere.”
Most of the road needs in Sarasota are related to capacity, Habgood continued. Those, including bridge projects, add up to about $2 billion, she said. Another $180 million is needed for high priority initiatives on the county’s Trails Master Plan, with 105 miles of paved and unpaved trails proposed in 14 projects; plus $170 million estimated for 40 high priority initiatives on the county’s Bike/Ped Master Plan, involving nearly 100 miles of facilities.
Habgood then showed the board a “Menu of Potential Funding Sources,” with revenue estimates covering the period from 2027 through 2039, the same timeline as that of the Surtax 4 program.
First on the list was increasing the county’s mobility fee by 25%, which would raise an estimated $113 million. Habgood did note that numerous restrictions exist in regard to how those fees can be structured, with a state bill updating the use of them going into effect in October.
The fees are associated with new development, the slide said, so the funds can be used to reduce congestion, but not to add capacity.
However, Habgood cautioned, “If development slows, that revenue slows.”
The second option was to try to win voter approval through referendum of a half-cent dedicated surtax for transportation, which would be anticipated to raise $840 million.
That, she pointed out, “can have a really big impact” on filling a funding gap. That extra portion of sales tax would be paid not only by residents, but also by visitors, Habgood added.
The third option was more public-private partnerships, with an estimated $70 million in the reduction of project costs. The slide noted that such partnerships also can get projects completed more quickly, though those might not necessarily be priority initiatives.
A Municipal Services Billing Unit, or Tax Unit, could bring in $13 million, she continued. An MSBU or MSTU can be tied to a specific geographic area, with property owners contributing the funds for transportation projects in the specific area, the slide explained.
Finally, a tolling authority could be established, which could raise a projected $88 million for bridge needs.
When Chair Ron Cutsinger asked Habgood whether other counties in Florida are using a dedicated transportation surtax, she told him, “There are a lot in Florida.” In fact, she continued, she worked with Hillsborough County leaders on implementing such a tax.
“You get to say what [the money] goes for,” she added, with that option. Since the surtax has to be implemented by referendum, Habgood explained, the plans for the funds must be “very, very clearly laid out.”
Cutsinger asked that she provide the Sarasota County Commission a list of the communities with such a tax. “That [surtax] would also allow for tourism to contribute to roads,” he said during a later portion of the discussion. For that matter, he noted, anyone buying products in Sarasota County would contribute to the tax. “It’s something I think we should look at anyway.”
Commissioner Teresa Mast pointed out that Anderson, the Transportation Department director, had mentioned, too, the potential creation of what she called a “brain tank,” with people who could consider very creative options for funding county road projects. “Very forward thinking,” she stressed.
In some areas of the county, especially the barrier islands, Mast continued, right of way acquisition is “very constrained.”
She then noted, as an example of creating thinking “those Tesla tunnels that they have out [in Las Vegas],” which she characterized as “really amazing.”
Commissioner Knight indicated his agreement with her comments. State government in recent years, he added, “has made it more difficult for local government to keep up … The five of us are trying.”
Further, Knight talked of the fact that public-private partnerships can achieve the completion of projects less expensively. He then asked consultant Habgood whether she has seen a lot more of those types of endeavors across the state.
She has, she replied, especially in the Tampa Bay region and other portions of Southwest Florida. “We’re estimating about 10% savings per project,” she added, “which definitely adds up.”
Knight then told her that he agreed with Cutsinger in wanting more information about the transportation surtax suggestion.
Commissioner Mark Smith said that that option “caught my eye, obviously … as we have the public clamoring for more infrastructure. I don’t know if we would do a polling or survey or something before we would go to referendum,” he continued, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if [such a tax] got approved by our citizens.”
It “was the biggest number” on the list Habgood showed the board, Cutsinger noted, referring to the potential revenue among all the options.
He estimated “about a third of that [money]” could come from tourists.
Referring to the tolling suggestion, Commissioner Neunder added, “I could just never get behind that. … I don’t see something like that fitting in with the aesthetics [of the county].”