| WDBO Local News |
Toll increase vote is this afternoon
Get ready for tolls to go up
The Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority will vote today on a plan to raise tolls on all Orange County roll roads by a quarter. Those increases will be on at all plazas and ramps. Expressway Authority Head Mike Snyder says raising the tolls will create thousands of jobs.
"We have many projects, over 600 million worth of shovel ready projects that are shovel ready today that we simply don't have the money to do."
Including the Wekiva Parkway. People are irate over the proposed increase.
"The working man doesn't stand a chance."
Harvey Massey is a former board Vice President who says the OOCEA is riddled with waste, including the 25 to 30 million they spent on their brand new headquarters.
"If you walked in that building right now, only 38 percent of it is office space. The rest of it is common areas and storage space and so forth."
Expressway Chief Mike Synder told the County Commission last week if they did not raise tolls, the people who hold their bonds may have to come in and take over the toll agency, something that's unprecedented. Tolls will be tied to inflation in the future and will go up without public comment or a board vote. The public can comment today, beginning at 4 at Expressway headquarters. If the toll increase passes, expect to pay more beginning in April.
What others are saying
- Additional Robery by the Toll Road AuthorityIt seems the gangsters at the Toll Road Authority do not want to be outdone by the thievery being perpetrated on the country by the Federal Government, nor the State Government with its puny property tax cut, nor local criminals in office who, though it is against State Law, write tickets for Red Light Violations caught on camera, nor by the Electric Company who just jacked our rates up by 35%, not by the crooks at the Water Company who want a 60+% increase in their rates. No, these corrupt bandits have seen how easily the citizenry rolls over to be financially raped and want their piece of the booty as well. They are deprave, greedy, power-mad, self-indulging, unscrupulous pirates who should be thrown (bodily) out of office! This fee hike should NOT be allowed to pass! (I hope I have not been too vague in expressing my opinions.)
- This is why voting matters!Dear WDBO,
Please have someone publish the names of all responsible parties so we can thank them at the ballot box. If you keep the public informed, we can remove the representatives that are creating our expressway toll problems and elect people that can fix the problems they will have caused us.
Has the Expressway Authority investigated the reasons behind why toll revenues are down? I suspect people are trying to save money in every way that they can, so they are using alternative routes and bypassing the tolls. If you raise tolls even higher, even more people will avoid the toll roads and so you will have more and more burden placed upon fewer and fewer drivers. Maybe that will eliminate the need for more highway construction, but it won't best serve the needs of the community. - Tolls and the expresswayIf the tolls go up, I will be returning my transponder and give up the toll roads. It's not worth it for me. It would cost me $1.75 to go fron John young Parkway to Hiawassee road. Old Winter Garden Road is free. Now you just lost more money. Lower the tolls and maybe MORE people would use it.
- Not SmartWhen a former VP of the Expressway is saying that it is a bad idea to raise tolls, perhaps we should listen. People are loosing jobs and homes but hey lets raise our prices...really smart. Where does teh idiocy end.
- The Fleecing of FloridaWhat planet is Mike Snyder from? If the former vice president, Harvey Massey says the Expressway Authority is riddled with waste wouldn't he know? Here we go again with the words "greed" and "wastefulness". It seems the people in so many businesses are totally incapable of sound economic decisions. Let's get someone in authority to look into the Expressway Authority with a fine tooth comb. Then they say from now on increases will be tied into inflation! How did that one come about? People can not afford it, period end of sentence. Let's stop the "fleecing of Florida". now!
- toll raiseraising tolls when people are losing their jobs..smart.
how about the expressway authority do what 1,000's of central florida residents do, make do with what you have
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