{"id":121378,"date":"2026-01-17T01:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/121378\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:29:07","slug":"desantis-toll-plan-could-bring-relief-to-key-biscayne-commuters-key-biscayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/121378\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis\u2019 toll plan could bring relief to Key Biscayne commuters | Key Biscayne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Term-limited in 2026, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is aiming to leave his mark in Florida politics lore.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis is seeking bipartisan support to eliminate property taxes during the upcoming Florida Legislative Session and has another proposal to help Florida save money.<\/p>\n<p>During a press conference in Tallahassee, DeSantis announced he wants to eliminate tolls for Florida residents and let visitors bear the costs.<\/p>\n<p>If such legislation passes, it would be a big savings for Key Biscayne residents who use the Rickenbacker Causeway to reach the mainland.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis said his eliminating tolls for Florida residents reduces the financial hardship they face daily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d love to be able to knock out, you know, the tolls and stuff that people are paying,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.islandernews.com\/news\/keybiscayne\/county-s-proposed-budget-may-triple-rickenbacker-toll-for-key-biscayne-residents\/article_4c4fe040-5ee9-4d9b-a566-8a6197f76757.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rickenbacker Causeway<\/a>, which connects Miami to the barrier island of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne, the toll amount is $3.25 per trip but Miami-Dade County offers an annual resident plan of $72 per vehicle for two-axle noncommercial vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>The annual commuter plan is $120 per vehicle, available for two-axle non-commercial vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis&#8217; proposal to eliminate tolls might not get support from Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n<p>In her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamidade.gov\/global\/management\/budget\/2025-26\/proposed\/home.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">budget for fiscal year 2025-26<\/a>, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava increased the annual rate from $24 to $72, which triples the cost for Key Biscayne residents.<\/p>\n<p>The regular two-axle toll for visitors would rise $1.00 to $3.25.<\/p>\n<p>Cava raised the tolls to help offset a $400 million budget shortfall.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Suarez, the communications director for the office of Levine Cava, told Islander News the mayor is not in a position to comment as DeSantis&#8217; proposal is vague.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There isn\u2019t a defined proposal that explains how this would work, where it would apply, or what the real impacts would be,&#8221; Suarez said. &#8220;Without those details, the mayor is not in a position to comment.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Term-limited in 2026, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is aiming to leave his mark in Florida politics lore.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[60749,23163,2683,126,123,125,124,412,52459,47923,60750],"class_list":["post-121378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-commuters","tag-commuting","tag-desantis","tag-key-biscayne","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-ron-desantis","tag-sunpass","tag-toll","tag-toll-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}