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Please see this op ed, which supposedly was published in Defuniak Springs Herald Today. It has been submitted to NWF Daily News as well.
Private Toll Road Won't Benefit Public
By Linda Young
Director
Clean Water Network of Florida
News that a private company wants to “help” Walton County by widening U.S. 331 and the Choctawhatchee Bay Bridge should give citizens pause.
This private company wants to turn U.S. 331 into a widened private toll road. That means motorists would be at the mercy of largely unregulated price increases to use a road and bay bridge they now drive on for free.
The proposal comes from a company founded by Denver Stutler, who served as Gov. Jeb Bush’s chief of staff and then as Bush’s Department of Transportation secretary. Stutler’s company approached the Northwest Florida Transportation Corridor Authority Feb. 17 with an “unsolicited proposal” to “design, build, operate, and finance transportation facilities which will provide additional capacity for U.S. 331 in Walton County.”
It is curious how this proposal just popped up out of nowhere. Developer Jay Odom, whose 3,000-acre Hammock Bay development in Freeport would benefit from a pricey new road, was quoted in the Northwest Daily News as saying “In my book, this is a stimulus package. It’s a half-billion-dollar stimulus that’s not reliant on federal dollars.”
Really? A quick look at Florida DOT...
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