Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a bill that would clear the way for moving Northwest Florida’s Garcon Point Bridge into the state turnpike system.
Why this matters: The Santa Rosa County bridge was the subject of a long-running legal fight between bondholders and the state because the bridge did not generate enough toll revenue.
- The Florida Department of Transportation last year agreed to pay $134 million to take control of the bridge and to end the litigation.
- The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority, which was created by the Legislature in 1992, issued bonds in 1996 to build the bridge over part of Pensacola Bay. The lack of toll revenue to fully pay bondholders was complicated by the fact that the authority effectively became defunct in 2014.
- The bill (HB 1305) formally transfers authority over the bridge to the Department of Transportation and repeals the Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority. It also gives the department the power to transfer the bridge to the turnpike system.
Dig Deeper:
In July 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at Garcon Point Bridge Toll Plaza that he was lowering the bridge’s toll from $4.50 to $2.30 for SunPass customers and from $5 to $2.75 for cash customers. He also directed FDOT to reach a settlement with the Trustee and the bondholders to purchase the bridge and transfer control to the Florida Turnpike Enterprise. Read more.
However, the tolls weren’t reduced until the summer of 2022 when the state of Florida took ownership of the Garcon Point Bridge after almost a year of negotiations. On June 15, 2022, toll rates were reduced as DeSantis promised in late June 2021.
Source: The News Service of Florida