Delegation urges protection for regional transit funding; senators press to restore EV express-lane exemptions

County commissioners and state legislators at the delegation meeting asked lawmakers to restore cuts to South Florida regional transit funding and to preserve express-lane policies that incentivize electric-vehicle use.

Commissioner Lamar Fisher called for state support to restore South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) funding after an apparent cut from about $43 million to $15 million and urged legislators to support federal new-starts money for a Broward commuter-rail project. "We are confident that we can get that back in play because it's most important to have bridal operating and what that system service and who they service," Fisher said.

Why it matters: Officials said SFRTA funding supports regional bus and commuter services. Loss of state or federal funds could slow planned station projects and derail transit-oriented development that local municipalities have planned around new stations.

Details: Senators and commission members said Miami-Dade had federal leverage for its projects and Broward needed similar access to leverage federal new-starts funding; county staff said a new-starts application was filed for the south Broward commuter-rail segment. Senator Tina Polsky and others also flagged a separate issue: the removal of an EV exemption for express lanes that had allowed environmentally friendly vehicles to use tolled lanes without surcharge.

Senator Polsky said the EV exemption was originally tied to HOV/express-lane rules and that a federal change removed those HOV designations in some form; she said restoring exemptions would keep drivers using express lanes and ease congestion on main lanes.

Ending: Delegation members asked for coordinated state support to reinstate SFRTA funding levels and to explore fixes to the EV-exemption changes so express-lane investments continue to deliver congestion relief.