Tax initiative suspended, how will Orange County fund billions in transportation needs?

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — By 2040, an additional 400 thousand people are projected to move to Orange County.

It’s a figure that captures rapid growth in Central Florida which has contributed to congested roads and mounting transportation needs.

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Orange County estimates there are currently $22 billion worth of unfunded transportation needs.

However, at a Tuesday Orange County Commission meeting, the board decided a Transportation Sales Tax won’t be the answer, at least for now.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to suspend the Transportation Sales Tax initiative until 2026.

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That would have given voters a chance to decide whether to increase the sales tax by either a penny or half-a-penny for several years. The increase would have helped fund public transit, road widening, and road safety projects.

However, Orange County Commissioners felt there wasn’t enough community support for the measure, since 58% of voters rejected a penny sales tax for transportation in 2022.

“I will be so supportive of this in 2026, but we need to fix some things along the way before we get this on the ballot,” said Orange County Commissioner Emily Bonilla during Tuesday’s meeting.

“We didn’t have enough information,” said Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe, “Seemed like we were doing the same thing we did two years ago, and it failed.

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Uribe told Channel 9 that she wanted the county to fully explore other transportation funding sources further before asking voters to support the initiative.

On Tuesday, Mayor Jerry Demings spoke with Channel 9 and stated he believes the county has fallen behind on transportation, but added he was not disappointed that the tax didn’t advance this ballot cycle.

“We do want to get this passed,” said Demings, “If that means suspending it to give us time to work out all the intricate details to get our entire board behind it. That is what I’m looking for.”

Demings stated in the meantime, the county will continue to work towards incremental change, but he believes a new funding source is necessary to make major change.

“The major transformational things cannot be done within the breath of the current budget that we have,” said Demings, “We will continue to live within our means.”

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The county is now looking at other ways to get transportation projects funded, and is continuing work on a separate $100 Million Accelerated Transportation Safety Program.

That program is based off the current sales tax and allocates $55 million over the next 5 years to more than 240 county projects which improve roadway lighting, sidewalks, and safety.

The program also allocates $45 million for enhanced Lynx operational frequency and bus shelters.

Some believe that program could be key in proving to voters the county can be responsible with money generated from an increase in the sales tax.

“I think it’s time that we keep track of those. Show them [the voters]. So, when we do talk about this in two years, we can say, look what we’ve done with $100 million. Imagine what we could do with billions,” said Uribe.

All commissioners agreed transportation needs do exist countywide and are not going away, because of this there was consensus to revisit the sales tax in 2026.

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