Legislatures don’t like to raise taxes. So they delegate that dirty work to taxing districts or tolling authorities — entities of their creation. Clean hands on taxes? Maybe. Clean hands overall? Far from.
The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority isn’t top of the list for public interest, and that’s just how they want it to stay.
Billions of dollars funnel through the OOCEA, which is responsible for the tolling and maintenance of five expressways in Orlando, and for the development of a sixth: the Wekiva Parkway, a 27-mile toll road completing the beltway around metro Orlando.
Therein lies some fertile ground for corruption. Without cracking open the whole coconut, let’s take some sips from its sweet shell.
Rewind a few years to Chris Dorworth’s glory days as Speaker Designate. There’s no need to rehash in its entirety the work of Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell who suspected that Dorworth’s financial ties were less than kosher for a person in his role. Maxwell relentlessly detailed Dorworth’s relationship with mega-developer Jim Palmer, and these reports played a central role in his unforeseen loss at the polls.
Click here for the story in SaintPetersBlog
