'Gator Alley lease proposal sells toll soul

May 06, 2008

By Frank Cerabino, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

This item, "Alligator Alley Monetization," is posted on the state's Web site:

The Florida Department of Transportation has announced plans to explore monetization opportunities, including leasing, of Alligator Alley. The Department received authorization through legislation passed last year allowing for the leasing of certain Department-owned assets, including Alligator Alley.

Alligator Alley, a 78-mile toll facility, transverses southern Florida from coast to coast and connects the rapidly growing Collier and Lee counties to highly populated Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It is a four-lane tolled interstate facility, part of I-75, and is part of the Florida Intrastate Highway System.

E-mail questions and comments to: Department of Transportation Public Information Office.

Dear FDOT Public Information Office:

First, a comment. I object to the use of the word "monetization." It is a silly, frilly word that does little but mask the true nature of your proposal by using language that gives the deceptive whiff of high finance.

This is especially inappropriate since what is being explored smacks of foolish desperation.

So I recommend a simpler word choice, such as "hocking." If public information is the goal here, then "Hocking Alligator Alley" is a more genuine use of language than "Alligator Alley Monetization."

After all, an addict doesn't go into a pawn shop with his mother's china saying, "I'd like to monetize these plates so I can buy some more crack cocaine."

Pardon the "crack" reference. I don't mean to imply that the state wants to pawn public roads to private investors in foreign countries in order to buy illegal drugs. State legislators want to pawn public assets to avoid plugging budget holes with more obvious tax increases. I use the drug-addict illustration only to point out the rash quest for quick cash by means that are foolish in the long range.

And this one apparently is, at least according to your department's own study, which concluded that the state could reap twice as much from Alligator Alley by keeping the road and borrowing money against future toll receipts.

So the state does seem to be crack-head foolish here.

On the other hand, foreign investors would be wise to consider buying into Alligator Alley.

Investors reap profits on the toll roads by raising the tolls, and that works best on bridges or roads where the driving alternatives are not very attractive. And that's what makes Alligator Alley such a good investment for our cash-rich friends in Asia and the Middle East.

Alligator Alley has a virtual monopoly on vehicle traffic across the southern half of the state. Sure you can take Tamiami Trail to the south, or drive north to West Palm Beach and take State Road 80. But the safest, quickest way across the state in the southern half of Florida is Alligator Alley.

And so investors will gladly hand over $500 million or so to the state in up-front cash in exchange for raking in 50 years of escalating tolls on a road that is guaranteed to get lots of traffic.

Meanwhile, state taxpayers who paid to build the road, which was never envisioned as a toll road, and support its improvements over the years will see the $2.50 toll go as high as $10 in a decade, according to projections.

So, here's my question:

Are you trying to hock Alligator Alley because:

(a) You suspect that global warming will submerge the southern half of Florida before the lease runs out?

(b) Gas will be so expensive that, in a few years, nobody will even think about driving across Florida? Or ...

(c) Florida really is crack-head foolish?