Alligator Alley getting snapped up

I've driven Alligator Alley (a 78-mile stretch of I-75) between Fort Lauderdale and Naples, Florida since it was a narrow, two-lane race track guaranteed to cause several wrecks every day. Some years ago, Alligator Alley underwent a major renovation to become a four-lane divided toll-road which made moving from one side of the state to the other ever so much more pleasant.

While the expansion from two to four lanes did cut down the number of accidents - especially at night, drivers tended to push past the speed limits and bodies still piled up beside hunks of crumpled metal strewn across the concrete or off into the Everglades.

I suppose it was inevitable that with Republicans ruling the Statehouse and a Republican sitting in the governor's chair, Alligator Alley would be leased off to some private company which will make a fortune off the backs of Florida residents who already pay taxes for their roads as well as millions of visitors who deign to double their trouble in the middle of the Florida swamps.

What is it with Republicans in government who don't want to govern? Or maybe it's because they are bought and sold by corporate entities that this kind of a thing is as maudlin as mere payback.


Florida state officials are preparing "to lease a 78-mile state highway that runs across the Florida Everglades to a private company." And this is just the beginning. These Tallahassee trolls are looking down the road (so to speak) to do the same with the Sunshine Skyway bridge across Tampa Bay and the Beachline Expressway near Orlando."

It seems our taxes are insufficient, or thought to be insufficient, or maybe it's just old-fashioned greed on the part of our political poohbahs.

Here's the plan: Give a private company a long-term lease of 50 to 75 years. The private company puts a bunch of bucks into the state treasury (the amount of which will be immediately erased by tax breaks for the wealthy), and the private company makes an even bigger bunch of bucks by raising the tolls on a regular basis over that 50 to 75 years.

What a deal! Take a state asset, lease it out long-term to a private company whereby the state has no further financial advantage, but the private company makes a fortune.

Even Charlie Crist, who actually fooled some of us into thinking he had some feeling for the regular folks, is fer it!

I think the toll now is $2.50 one-way. If this goes through, you can bet your bippy the toll will be $4.00 the next year, $8.00 the year after that, and then hang on to your hat. You may have to switch to old Highway 41, which is still two lane and hell on wheels!

What will these Republicans think up next?