Is Alachua County spending $106 million on roads in FY2027? Yes, but almost half of that is rolled over from previous years.
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Updated on October 1 to clarify that the surtax funds are 70% of half of the surtax tax; half goes to infrastructure, and half goes to Wild Spaces Public Places projects.
ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – When the Alachua County Commission passed the FY2027 budget on September 22, Commissioners and staff repeatedly referenced “$100 million for roads” in the budget; while it is true that the County has allocated nearly $108 million to transportation for FY2027, at least $49 million of that comes from unspent funds from previous years, and the road paving plan has not changed significantly.
At the September 22 meeting, Commissioner Anna Prizzia said, “We’re putting in $24 million a year of this infrastructure surtax. Our overall budget for roads is closer to $100 million a year. That includes all of our gas tax, as well as other funds that we get from grants that Ramon and his team write, DOT funds and partnership funds that we get, mobility funds that come from developers.”
The budget presentation also highlighted $106 million for roads (see below).
A few days later, Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby sent Commissioners a breakdown of the funding and expenses:
Alachua County’s Transportation Capital Improvement Plan
Alachua County’s Transportation Capital Improvement Plan (TCIP) is the 10-year plan that allocates about $250 million to repaving our roads. The annual revenue dedicated to this plan is about $25 million and consists of about $10 million in surtax funds (70% of the infrastructure half of the County’s surtax revenue), $7 million from the General Fund, about $3 million from the “nickel tax” (local option gas tax), and about $5 million from grants and other funding sources.
Although the County has tried to avoid changing the TCIP, some work is behind schedule, and sometimes roads are paved in a different order than the original plan. For example, the map below shows the roads scheduled for 2026, most of which are in the planning/design phase:
We spoke to Crosby to understand the funding sources in the table above (all numbers are rounded except the numbers taken from the table above), and we learned that most lines in the table include significant funding rolled over from previous years:
- Gas Tax Operating ($14,946,599) – FY2027 revenue of about $10 million plus $5 million rolled over from previous years; these are mostly operating funds that go into mowing and other transportation network maintenance work.
- Surtax ($32,652,035) – FY2027 revenue of about $10 million plus $22 million that was allocated to TCIP in previous budget years but not spent.
- Grant ($5 million) – $5 million from FDOT for specific roads, included in the TCIP funding.
- Transportation Trust Fund ($23,267,050) – FY2027 revenue of about $7 million from the County’s General Fund plus $16 million that was allocated to TCIP in previous budget years but not spent.
- 5Cent Gas Tax Capital ($9,216,240) – FY2027 revenue of about $3 million from the “nickel” gas tax plus about $6 million rolled over from previous years.
- Remaining funds – some of the money on the remaining lines goes into TCIP, but most of it is used for specific projects or operational expenses.
The total of rolled-over funds comes to about $49 million, and it is important to note that this number does not represent new road funding; these are funds that were allocated but not spent in previous budget years.
The bottom line is that it is true that Alachua County’s FY2027 budget allocates over $100 million to the transportation network, but the TCIP plan is still essentially the same plan that was rolled out in 2023 except for a few minor changes, such as adding NW 83rd Street in the upcoming fiscal year.
Summary:
- The County has been putting about $25 million a year into repaving roads since 2023 (significantly more than they were spending before that);
- The money is spent on repaving the roads in the TCIP (a plan made in 2023 that goes through 2032), with the pace of spending limited by factors such as weather and the availability of contractors and materials;
- Unspent funds are rolled over into the budget of future fiscal years, but those amounts are still part of the original $250 million plan.
In 2023, we laid out the plan by year: When will that terrible road get paved? You can find updates on the plan here.
Thank you Jennifer for your determination to discover the truth, and to inform us readers who do not want to be gas lit by our governing authorities.
The county spends a lot on courthouse construction, ASO staffing in the courtrooms, court fines never paid back by criminals, too. Maybe ask county judges and lawyers to stop the revolving door? Keep them locked up. That would save millions a year that could go into road repairs. For starters.
The only roads that get fixed in Alachua County are the ones where the politicians live. TCIP, is transportation Capital Improvement program. The program is to let roads Fall Apart and waste money making charts and graphs that mean nothing while not hiring shovel ready job workers to fix the problem. Stop gaslighting the public and get the work done.
Assuming you would not make a statement without data to back it up, would you name a road that the county has paved that a commissioner lives on?
How about Charles Chestnut Avenue. How much money was spent reshaping the road into a bike friendly Street snarling up traffic and making it dangerous.
Jennifer, What is the “multimodal” in the ‘by funding sources’ table? Is the county reporting maintenance of bike lanes and recreational bike trails as part of the road maintenance number?
“with the pace of spending limited by factors such as weather and the availability of contractors and materials;”
The thug politicians and their underlings keep pushing the narrative that none of this is their fault. That garbage may work on people who are willing to accept whatever BS they’re told, but it doesn’t change the facts or relieve those in charge of responsibility for the decisions they made.
Alachua County has three FDOT-certified major asphalt producers, all of which are actively involved in milling and repaving highways and roads:
* Preferred Materials
* V.E. Whitehurst & Sons
* Watson Construction
In addition to these three asphalt producers, there are two major heavy-highway/civil contractors that operate in the Alachua County market and are also involved in highway and roadway milling and paving:
* Anderson Columbia (Asphalt plant in operation in Columbia County)
* R.E. Arnold Construction
Neither Anderson Columbia nor R.E. Arnold has an asphalt-production operation located in Alachua County, but both are established heavy-highway/civil contractors capable of performing major milling and paving projects.
There is no shortage of contractors or asphalt. There is a shortage of care—and an abundance of contempt for the taxpayers who actually pay for it.
•Surtax ($32,652,035) – FY2027 revenue of about $10 million plus $22 million that was allocated to TCIP in previous budget years but not spent.
•Transportation Trust Fund ($23,267,050) – FY2027 revenue of about $7 million from the County’s General Fund plus $16 million that was allocated to TCIP in previous budget years but not spent.
It’s not like the road issues haven’t existed for years—they’ve admitted as much. What the hell have they been waiting on? Another hotel?
Why are there “unspent” road repair funds in the first place? Maybe we (Alachua County) could stop with the affordable housing waste. It is a municipal responsibility and not part of county infrastructure in the first place.
Waiting to fix (pothole patching isn’t gonna do it) was a poor decision as the base of the roads have deteriorated so much that they now need to be milled and resurfaced greatly increasing the overall cost. Incompetent leadership making piss poor decisions.
The infrastructure surtax funding the current 10-year plan went into effect on January 1, 2023. As of August:
Completed Projects: $46 million
Currently Under Construction: $20.4 million
Pre-Construction & Design: $53.6 million
In other words, in 3.5 years they are averaging $13 million a year in real spending, about 1/10th of the $106 million they are misleadingly claiming. Allocated does not equal spent.
They took the tax money, but their own inefficiency and incompetence has prevented them from turning it into completed projects, and the cost of the original repairs continues to increase due to this neglect.
Frustrated Eastsider,
There is a small section of NW 8th Ave. in front of the historic Chestnut Funeral home named after Charles S. Chestnut III, the former Alachua County commissioner, first Black member elected to the Alachua County School Board, and longtime civil-rights leader. The Chestnut family’s funeral home is also located along that stretch at 18 NW 8th Avenue.
His son is the currently serving County Commissioner. This is not a County road. It is a city of Gainesville major east/west road and that is why improvements have made to it.
Gainesville Dad,
Money builds up because there is a great deal of planning that goes into these massive infrastructure projects. The county doesn’t just write a check to the construction company at the beginning. It is paid over time as the project proceeds.
Mark, The money has built up because the commission’s 40 years of intentional negligence has left the commission without the administrative infrastructure needed to run the number and size of projects we need.
Given past history, nobody who pays attention is sold on the county’s sudden change of heart to prioritize rural roads.
Mark, we’re talking about roads and government inefficiency / negligence, so spare us your bizarre woke press release.
Charles Chestnut was not a notable civil rights figure in any sense of the word, nor is the run-down Chestnut Funeral Home any more “historic” than the local McDonald’s.
The Chestnut family is only notable in this county for the tribal nepotism that keeps the family leeching our tax dollars generation after generation, and the way that the family profits from the increased violence (particularly black on black violence) that the political arm of the family actively cultivates through its policies. They have never done a damn thing for the black community, or anyone else except themselves.
The only thing massive about these infrastructure projects is the bloated, inefficient bureaucracy ensuring that these projects never get started.
Mark’s trying to defend the indefensible. These County politicians think they can save the planet by turning our roads and streets into bicycle Lanes. The County spent loads on money putting these dangerous scooters all over the city and county. Where did all those scooters go to anyhow.
Mark, how is turning a 4-lane road into a split 2-lane for vehicular traffic and seldom used 2-lane for bicycle traffic an ‘improvement’? It is quite the exercise in fiscal incompetence and traffic efficiency seeing as the only stretch that fell to the city’s wokeness is the ~1/8 mile segment in front of Chestnut Funeral Home though.
What a train wreck in the comments here today. We have a government propagandist arguing with confused citizens who can’t differentiate between the city and county.
CommentzIt appears that the Road to Kenny’s House will be repaved
More and more obfuscation, the roads are NOT FIXED, no matter how much the County “Leaders” claim they are. Take a drive and see for yourself. The pitiful little chart with a few dash marks of what is being repaired this year is embarrassing. Fix the Roads, plenty of millions to buy and remodel old motels and take them off the tax rolls and bive to the homeless, yet drivers have to suffer damage and danger.
Over Half was Rolled Over, UNUSED as Same people in Power tell you they are Doing Everything in their power to address Road Issues, Proves they are sitting on their behinds and doing little to nothing because it doesn’t effect their affluent neighborhood
Bla, Bla Bla – Fix the roads! Alright, that may be too much to ask, at least fill the potholes so we don’t destroy our vehicles – UGH