ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Paying for transportation and mass transit in Central Florida is a multi-billion dollar challenge for Orange County leaders amid continuing population growth.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, that conversation will continue as county commissioners once again consider a proposal to put a tax increase on the ballot next November.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Orange County faces a $22 billion deficit in transportation and transit needs
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Commissioners are discussing options for a tax increase to fund improvements
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Tax increase proposals include one-penny sales tax, gas tax, or infrastructure tax<\/p>\n
The idea of using a new tax to pay for these improvements isn\u2019t new, but it\u2019s struggled to gain support in the past. In November 2022, Orange County voters rejected a one-cent sales tax increase proposal, and county leaders\u00a0considered a similar effort in 2024 before ultimately opting not to pursue it.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jerry Demings said in late September that the region has a long-term deficit of at least $22 billion in transportation and mass transit needs for the future. He said now is the time to address these issues.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News spoke with Orange County Commissioners Mayra Uribe and Kelly Semrad on Monday, and they both have questions about the mayor\u2019s plan\u00a0to pay for our long-term transportation needs. They want more information on who would pay for improvements and how.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve grown in a way that a lot of people refer to as unsustainable, because the infrastructure couldn\u2019t keep up with the demand that the growth put on the community and the infrastructure,\u201d Semrad said.<\/p>\n
There are several options commissioners will discuss on Tuesday, with proposals of putting a one-penny sales tax, gasoline tax or infrastructure tax on the ballot. Semrad says raising gas taxes is not the solution as more people switch from gas-powered cars to electric cars and other forms of transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we learned about the gas tax is that it\u2019s relatively stagnant in terms of impact,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Uribe also agrees that\u00a0a gasoline tax increase won\u2019t raise enough money.\u00a0Uribe believes the county should leverage its strengths by having tourists help fund a potential infrastructure tax increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith an infrastructure tax, not one person should pay into that. I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s just the voters,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of growth and development happening, and if everyone\u2019s going to pay, it needs to be an equal share where everybody puts into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uribe wonders whether there is enough time to engage residents and explain the plan to voters between now and November.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about putting together a plan or a proposal and selling it and expecting the voters to show up and vote on it in months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Over the last month, Orange County conducted focus groups with residents to see if they support a tax proposal being put on the ballot. County staffers will review those results with commissioners at Tuesday afternoon\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
This conversation comes as state leaders are pursuing property tax reforms, which could impact county revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Paying for transportation and mass transit in Central Florida is a multi-billion dollar challenge for Orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2173,2175,1337,2287,115,772,1335,139,141,140,2180,729,2177,1798],"class_list":{"0":"post-84855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-traffic-transit","9":"tag-app-traffic-and-transit","10":"tag-keith-landry","11":"tag-local-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-topic-latest-traffic-transit-news","19":"tag-traffic","20":"tag-traffic-and-transit","21":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84855","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=84855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}