The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Transportation
BILL: SB 1660
INTRODUCER: Senator Burgess
SUBJECT: Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority
DATE: March 22, 2021 REVISED:
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Price Vickers TR Pre-meeting
2. ATD
3. AP
I. Summary:
SB 1660 re-names the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority (THEA) as the West
Florida Expressway Authority (WFX or authority) and potentially expands the area served by the
WFX to include the counties of Citrus, Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Polk. The bill
directs the WFX to assume governance and control of the existing THEA expressway system,
including THEA’s assets, personnel, contracts, obligations, liabilities, facilities, and personal
property, and to succeed to and assume the powers, responsibilities, and obligations of the
former THEA.
In addition, the bill:
 Revises the composition of the WFX governing board, potentially increasing the board to no
more than 13 members as the area served is expanded to the identified counties.
 Authorizes WFX meetings and workshops to be conducted using communications media
technology and requires a specified notice for any such meeting or workshop.
 Authorizes the WFX to construct any extensions, additions, or improvements to the system
or appurtenant facilities, including all necessary approaches, roads, bridges, avenues of
access, and boulevards, with any changes, modifications, or revisions of any project which
are deemed desirable and proper.
 Prohibits toll revenues attributable to a toll rate increase for the use of a portion of the
expressway system that become effective on or after the jurisdiction of the authority is
expanded to include any one or more expansion counties from being used to construct or
expand a different portion of the system unless a two-thirds majority of the members of the
WFX governing board vote to approve such use, with exceptions.
 Removes existing language mandating that interest upon the amount of gasoline tax funds to
be repaid to the county (Hillsborough) pursuant to s. 348.60, F.S., relating to LPAs, be paid
out of revenues and other available moneys not required to meet the authority’s obligations.
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 Removes a 20-year limitation on the term of any lease of the authority’s property or facilities
or of the right to use the property or facilities.
 Authorizes the WFX to enter into partnerships, contracts, and agreements, including without
limitation, interlocal agreements, with any federal, state, or local governmental entity with
respect to the WFX’s purposes.
 Provides that capital projects that the WFX is authorized to acquire, construct, reconstruct,
equip, operate, and maintain are approved to be financed or refinanced by revenue bonds, but
any such financing may still not pledge the full faith and credit of the state.
 Authorizes the WFX to enter into lease-purchase agreements with a city, a county, or with
the FDOT.
 Provides that a duly adopted county commission resolution pledging surplus gasoline tax
funds under any LPA may authorize the execution and delivery of an interlocal agreement
between the WFX and the county setting forth the terms and provisions for use by the WFX
of any such gasoline tax funds.
 Authorizes the WFX to acquire any lands reasonably necessary for securing applicable
permits, areas necessary for management of access, borrow pits, drainage ditches, water
retention areas, rest areas, and replacement access for landowners whose access is impaired
due to the construction of a transportation facility.
 Repeals a requirement for THEA to consult with the Hillsborough County City-County
Planning Commission, and a requirement to follow or be superior to design standards
adopted by the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways when construction the
expressway system.
 Makes numerous revisions to conform terminology to the re-naming or to other revisions in
the bill, and makes grammatical and editorial revisions to improve readability.
Because the details of any projects to be undertaken by the WFX, and the details of any
financing in support of those projects, are unknown, the fiscal impact to state and local revenues
is indeterminate.
The bill takes effect upon becoming a law.
II. Present Situation:
Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority
An agency of the state, THEA currently serves Hillsborough County and is authorized to
construct, reconstruct, improve, extend, repair, maintain, and operate the expressway system in
that county,1 as well as outside the jurisdictional boundaries of Hillsborough County with the
consent of contiguous counties (Hardee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Polk) within whose
jurisdiction the activities occur.2
THEA’s governing board consists of seven members. The Governor appoints four of the
members, subject to confirmation by the Senate, which members serve four-year terms. One
member is the mayor or designee, who is the chair of the City Council of the city in Hillsborough
1
Section 348.53, F.S.
2
Section 348.54(15), F.S.
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County having the largest population (Tampa); one is a member of the Hillsborough County
Board of County Commissioners, selected by that board, who serves as a member ex officio; and
one is the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) district secretary (District 7), who
serves ex officio.3
THEA currently owns, maintains, and operates four facilities within Hillsborough County: The
Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, a limited access toll road approximately 15 miles in length,
crossing the City of Tampa from Gandy Boulevard and MacDill Air Force Base in the South,
through downtown Tampa and east to Brandon. Elevated and at-grade reversible express lanes
are operated within the existing facility and connect to the Brandon Parkway and Meridian
Avenue, also THEA-owned and maintained.4 The fourth facility is the Selmon Greenway, a 1.7-
mile multi-use trail that runs east-west under the Selmon Expressway, connecting with Tampa’s
Riverwalk and the Meridian Trail.5
Currently, THEA owes to the FDOT long-term debt in the amount of $213,833,835,6 which
includes advances for operating, maintenance, and replacement and renewal costs, as well as
loans from the State Transportation Trust Fund (STTF). According to the Florida Transportation
Commission:
In December 2012, THEA issued $404.3 million in fixed rate Refunding
Revenue Bonds (Series 2012A, 2012B and 2012D, of which $70.1 million
is taxable) and $40.4 million in fixed rate Taxable Revenue Bonds (Series
2012C). THEA attained financial independence from the State of Florida
and the Lease-Purchase Agreement (LPA) between THEA and FDOT was
terminated. FDOT confirmed THEA’s absolute ownership of the Lee Roy
Selmon Expressway and other assets. The LPA had required FDOT to
pay, from sources other than revenues, the costs of operations, routine
maintenance and renewals and replacements on the facility, if needed.
Since FY 2001, the Authority had reimbursed FDOT for its annual
operating and routine maintenance expenses pursuant to the adopted
budget. Pursuant to other agreements with FDOT, renewal and
replacement costs were added to THEA’s long term debt until 2013. [A]s
of June 30, 2019, $213.9 million is owed to FDOT for operating,
maintenance, and renewal and replacement expense advances, and FDOT
STTF loans to facilitate expansion of the Selmon Expressway. THEA
agreed to a repayment schedule of 20 annual installments of $10.7 million
to be paid by THEA to FDOT beginning in 2025.7
3
Section 348.52, F.S.
4
See the Florida Transportation Commission, Transportation Authority Monitoring and Oversight, Toll Authorities, Fiscal
Year 2019 Report at p. 43 (the latest available) available at http://www.ftc.state.fl.us/documents/reports/TAMO/fy-2019-
tamo-toll-report.pdf (last visited March 29, 2021).
5
See Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, About Us, available at About The Authority – Tampa Hillsborough
Expressway Authority (tampa-xway.com) (last visited March 29, 2021).
6
See memo from THEA’s executive director dated March 2, 2021 (on file in the Senate Transportation Committee). See also
supra note 4 at p. 44.
7
Id.
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FDOT Lease-Purchase Agreement Authority
FDOT authorization to enter into lease-purchase agreements (LPAs) is reflected in various parts
of chapter 348, F.S., relating to expressway and bridge authorities. Generally, the authorization
allows such agreements to provide for the leasing of an expressway system to the FDOT, with
the FDOT paying rentals as lessee, and may include provisions, e.g., relating to bonds,
construction, maintenance, repair, and operation of the system.
However, the Legislature in 2014 amended the FDOT’s powers and duties, expressly prohibiting
the FDOT from entering into a lease-purchase agreement with an expressway authority, regional
transportation authority, or other entity. That provision preserved the validity of LPAs authorized
under chapter 348, F.S., existing on July 1, 2013.8
The legislative policy prohibiting the FDOT from entering into LPAs was extended in the same
2014 session, in legislation similar to the subject bill,9 which transferred governance and control,
legal rights and powers, responsibilities, terms, and obligations of the Orlando-Orange County
Expressway Authority (OOCEA) and its expressway system to the Central Florida Expressway
Authority (CFX). The legislation also expanded the area served by CFX to include Seminole,
Lake, and Osceola counties, in addition to Orange County.
Section 348.754(2)(e), F.S., relating to CFX, currently acknowledges the LPA (as amended) that
existed between the former OOCEA and the FDOT, to which CFX is a party, but also prohibited
CFX from entering into other LPAs with the FDOT and prohibited any further amendment of the
existing agreements in a manner that expands or increases the FDOT’s obligations unless the
FDOT determines that the agreement or amendment is necessary to permit the refunding of
bonds issued before July 13, 2013.
While Florida law continues to authorize CFX to enter into LPAs with the FDOT, the 2014
Legislature repeated the established policy in s. 348.757(8), F.S., which currently recites that the
only LPA being authorized by that section is the existing LPA described above.
Additional present situation is discussed below in the effect of proposed changes.
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
Generally, the bill re-names THEA as the WFX, expands the area served by the WFX to include
the counties of Citrus, Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Polk; and directs the WFX to
assume governance and control of the existing THEA expressway system.
Short Title
Section 1 amends s. 348.50, F.S., to change the short title of part II of chapter 348, F.S., from the
“Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority Law” to the “West Florida Expressway
Authority Law.”
8
Ch. 2014-223, L.O.F. The legislation also preserved the validity of an LPA between the FDOT and the Mid-Bay Bridge
Authority.
9
Ch. 2014-171, L.O.F.
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Definitions
Section 2 amends s. 348.51, F.S., to re-define or define:
 “County” to mean each county located within the jurisdictional limits of the WFX, including
Hillsborough County and any expansion county, as applicable.
 “County gasoline tax funds” to mean all the 80-percent surplus gasoline tax funds or 20-
percent surplus gasoline tax funds accruing in each year to the FDOT or a county, as the case
may be, for use in a (rather than “the,” meaning Hillsborough) county under s. 9, Art. XII of
the State Constitution, after deduction, if and only to the extent necessary, of any amounts of
such gasoline tax funds pledged by the FDOT or a county for outstanding obligations.
 “Expansion county” to mean a county in which the WFX constructs or acquires a
transportation facility, which may include Citrus, Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and
Polk counties.
 “Expansion event” to mean the adoption of a resolution or other formal action by the WFX
governing board for the WFX to construct, complete, or acquire a transportation facility
located in an expansion county and to include the expansion county within its jurisdictional
limits.
 “Transportation facility” to mean the mobile and fixed assets, and the associated real or
personal property or rights, used in the transportation of persons or property by any means of
conveyance which the WFX may acquire, construct, and equip pursuant to its authorization,
and all appurtenances, including, but not limited to, highways; limited or controlled access
lanes, avenues of access, and facilities; and administrative and other office space, for the
exercise by the WFX of its powers and obligations.
The bill includes in the existing definition of “expressway system” or “system,” the directive that
a transportation facility shall become part of the expressway system upon the WFX governing
board’s designation of such facility as part of its system.
This section of the bill also deletes the definition of “city,” meaning the City of Tampa.
Re-naming and Transfer
Section 3 amends s. 348.52, F.S., in which THEA is currently established, to replace and re-
name THEA as the WFX. Immediately on July 1, 2021, the bill requires the WFX to assume the
governance and control of the expressway system operated by the former THEA, including its
assets, personnel, contracts, obligations, liabilities, facilities, and tangible and intangible
property. Any rights in such property and other legal rights of the former THEA are transferred
to the WFX. The WFX must immediately succeed to and assume the powers, responsibilities,
and obligations of the former THEA.
The transfer is subject to the terms and covenants provided for the protection of the holders of
the former THEA bonds in the LPA and the resolutions adopted in connection with the issuance
of the bonds and any and all bonds issued pursuant to a resolution or trust indenture subsequent
to the LPA. Further, the transfer does not impair the terms of the contract between the WFX and
the bondholders, does not act to the detriment of the bondholders, and does not diminish the
security for the bonds.
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After the transfer, the WFX must operate and maintain the expressway system and any other
facilities of the authority in accordance with the terms, conditions, and covenants contained in
the bond resolutions securing the bonds. The WFX must collect toll revenues and apply them to
the payment of debt service as provided in the bond resolution securing all bonds and shall
expressly assume all obligations relating to all bonds to ensure that the transfer has no adverse
impact on the security for all bonds.
The transfer does not make the obligation to pay the principal and interest on the bonds a general
liability of the WFX or pledge additional expressway system revenues to payment of the bonds.
Expressway system revenues that are generated by the expressway system and other facilities of
the WFX which were pledged by the former THEA to payment of the bonds will remain subject
to the pledge for the benefit of the bondholders.
Unlike the language used in the 2014 law that transferred the OOCEA to the CFX, this bill does
not include the following text: “The transfer does not modify or eliminate any prior obligation of
the department t