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Symposium offers upbeat outlook for Florida
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(Photo – Leo King)
Tom Murphy(left) of the Urban Land InstituteFlorida, Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp (R), were among yesterday’s speakers at a Global Trade & Transportation Symposium in Jacksonville. Kopelousos said, “Things are right in line. We’re still on schedule” for Florida at the federal level.
Yesterday was a big day for the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization and the Jacksonville Business Journal. They hosted their Global Trade & Transportation Symposium at the Marriott Southpoint hotel on Salisbury Road, and they had some heavy hitters as guest speakers. Among them was Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp (R), Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and Tom Murphy, former Democratic Pittsburgh mayor (1994-1996). Murphy is the Senior Resident Fellow for Urban Development at the Washington-based, non-profit Urban Land Institute.
A top-notch economist was there as well, Nathaniel Karp, who is the chief economist at BBVA Compass International of Birmingham, Ala., along with Paul Mason, chairman of the economics department at the Univ. of North Florida.
Onetime Florida House member Kottkamp, from Fort Myers, told more than 100 listeners there is a transformation taking place in Florida.
“We’re seeing amazing opportunities in aerospace, in biotech, life-sciences and alternative and renewable energies” among others, and “I’m very optimistic about the future not only because do we see companies from all over the world coming to Florida to go into these sectors, we’re starting to align our universities with these efforts so we have a work force, not just for 10 years but for 50, and we’re starting to see those that have been sitting on a great deal of capital looking for great investment opportunities right now.”
Kopelousos quipped she had been in Washington on Monday, so it was “really is great to be home.”
The Clay County native told the gathering “We have a 30-day extension on our appropriations legislation,” and solons in Washington are working on a three-month extension.
“Things are right in line. We’re still on schedule” for Florida at the federal level.
“The federal reauthorization bill in transportation will have the biggest effect on our state and truly, probably in this area as well.” She was referring to the First Coast.
She recalled “on the last go-around we were about a year and a half, two years late in passing a program, so it was about 12 extensions. Anyone who is a planner in this room it just sends you shivering because it really does create a problem.”
She noted, “The Obama administration would like an 18-month extension,” but they would like to put some policy in that extension.”
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., who serves on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, is not in favor of making changes, said Kopelousos.
“What she would like to see is climate change addressed, health care addressed, and then move on to transportation.”
Over in the House, she pointed out Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., has prepared a bill that would benefit Florida, but a section of that proposed legislation would require USDOT to create a “Public Benefit Office,” which, Kopelousos said, she would not like to see.
“When you talk about having toll rates go through USDOT for public-private partnerships… They would have to approve our First Coast Outer Beltway in a public-private partnership.”
She added, “I think you and I and those elected can really determine what is a public benefit for Florida.”
She added it would be in our best interest to do the beltway project. That is a project that would connect I-10 in Duval County southward through Clay County, then turn eastward to St. John’s County and connect with I-95.
At the state level, she emphasized the state must keep its infrastructure sound.
“We have always prioritized – and it’s in state statute – safety, preservation and maintenance first. Until the day I die I will argue that it is absolutely the right policy.”
Futurist Murphy, who is originally from Pittsburgh, said, “I think the rules are going to change.”
He pointed out gasoline is now $10 a gallon in Europe and 75 percent of our oil is imported. In the Carter administration it was 25 percent and 12 percent of our oil today comes from Venezuela.
“There’s no more imperative than to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to move to some alternative forms of energy.”
In his view, “The fundamental issue in the reauthorization of the surface transportation act and the discussion about climate change – there is going to be legislation that you’re not going to think about how it will impact you because it will create a whole new commodity market.”
He said those two topics are oil-driven. He noted transportation produces one-third of our carbon output.
“Where we live and how we go back and forth is very important.”
Another third of carbons come from the structures we live and work in, he said, so that will be real-estate connected.
He said there are three questions within transportation reauthorization.
“How you pay for it, who gets to decide where the money goes, and what are the priorities?”
He recalled, “In 1956 President Eisenhower said we need to build a highway system that permits us greater mobility for national defense, and for economic competitiveness.”
“Members of Congress stood up and screamed at him, ‘We can’t afford it!’ They also objected to a gasoline tax.”
Ultimately the result was the interstate highway system.
“This is an important issue. There is general feeling that the highway trust fund, which is somewhere around $25 billion to $30 billion a year, that is authorized by the federal government and given out to states that do things, ought to be raised to $50 billion.”
He offered an answer on how to pay for it.
“Is it a gas tax? Is it tolling some of the Interstates? Is it smart technology which begins the shift away from the gas tax to miles driven?
“Who’s in charge? Is it a metropolitan planning organization or a transportation planning organization? Another question is how much power should they have? Perhaps the state transportation secretary; how that money gets divided up, whether it’s more local control or state control or federal control.”
Murphy said, “If you want to become less dependent on oil, remember, as a driver – and part of this is connecting transportation and land use so you don’t sprawl. Think more about investing in mass transit and less in highways; so there are huge debates like that taking place.”
Economist Karp said the developed countries have sustained the most dramatic economic downturn in the last 50 years.
“For the developing world, if we compared the current downturn and we subtract the worst downturn they’ve experienced since previous times, this is still positive for most of these countries – and this is a key element in the current recession.”
He added, “American markets are still performing relatively well, and compared to other recessions, they are not the cause of the recession and they’re not suffering as much.”
He forecast that between now and 2012, “expected growth is much stronger than that for developed countries. There is no growth coming from developed countries in the next two to three years.”
That includes the U.S., Japan and the European Union, he added.
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