Controversial toll road project funding is still intact amid $1 billion in state budget cuts

At a rally in March, the ‘No Roads to Ruin’ coalition condemned plans to build three toll highways through rural Florida. Now, in spite of the pandemic, the funds are veto-proof. Photo by Laura Cassels

While shaving $1 billion worth of projects from the Florida Legislature’s 2020-21 state budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis could not touch funding for future construction of three controversial toll roads through rural Florida.

That’s because the money for the toll roads is embedded in state law.

A coalition of 80 organizations and businesses in June wanted DeSantis to redirect $90 million earmarked this year for massive toll road projects called Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, or M-CORES. They wanted that money put into the state’s general budget for other needs.

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