Gov. Rick Scott is firmly behind a tolled outer beltway around the southwest side of Jacksonville, Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll said Friday, seeking to squelch rumors that the administration is backing away from the project.
In an interview with The News Service of Florida, Carroll said Scott strongly supports the plan to build the new highway that would be an optional faster route around Jacksonville south of Interstate 10 to Blanding Blvd.
Carroll’s comments come in the wake of reports in local media in northeast Florida about concerns that Scott’s backing of the project may have waivered in the face of local criticism about the fact that drivers will have to pay to use the road.
Carroll said there will remain an existing road that isn’t tolled as an option – though slower – for drivers who don’t want to pay tolls.
“This road is an option,” Carroll said about the Outer Beltway. “We’re not putting any undue burdens on the citizens….They’re not forced to use it, the existing road will still be there.”
Carroll also said that new Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown now supports the project as well, and that the mayor assured Scott of that as recently as Thursday. That’s contrary to earlier reports that Brown opposed the toll road.
“He’s supportive of the project,” Carroll said. “He’s excited about us getting Floridians to work.”
A spokesman for Brown didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
WOKV Radio in Jacksonville put on its web site Thursday a letter from Marge Hutton, chairwoman of the Clay County Chamber of Commerce board, urging the county’s businesses to call Scott’s office to push for the road, because, Hutton wrote, “Gov. Rick Scott is contemplating pulling the state’s support for the First Coast Outer Beltway.”
The money for the 15-mile project is being put forward by the Florida Turnpike Enterprise and will be repaid by the tolls. The expected cost is $291 million.
Carroll said there’s really no other way to pay for it.
“We don’t want to increase taxes and we don’t have the sort of revenue,” to build such a road, she told the News Service.
By David Royse
