The Florida Senate

In order to effectuate the purposes of the Florida Expressway Authority Act, an authority may enter into a lease-purchase agreement with the department relating to and covering an expressway system.

The lease-purchase agreement must provide for the leasing of the expressway system by the authority, as lessor, to the department, as lessee, and must prescribe the terms of such lease and the fees to be paid thereunder.

The lease-purchase agreement may include such other provisions, agreements, and covenants as the authority and the department deem advisable or required, including, but not limited to, provisions as to the bonds to be issued under and for the purposes of the Florida Expressway Authority Act; the completion, extension, improvement, operation, and maintenance of the expressway system and the expenses and cost of operation of the authority; the charging and collection of tolls, rates, fees, rentals, or other charges for the use of the services and facilities thereof; the application of federal or state grants or aid which may be made or given to assist the authority in the completion, extension, improvement, operation, and maintenance of the expressway system, which the authority is authorized to accept and apply to such purposes; the enforcement of payment and collection of tolls, rates, fees, and rentals; and any other terms, provisions, or covenants necessary, incidental, or appurtenant to the making of, and full performance under, such lease-purchase agreement.

Upon the faithful performance thereunder and the termination of such lease-purchase agreement, title in fee simple absolute shall be transferred in accordance with law by the authority to the state. At this point, the department, at its discretion, may provide that any toll, rate, fee, or rental collected may be continued.

The department, as lessee under such lease-purchase agreement, may pay, as rentals thereunder, any tolls, rates, fees, charges, funds, moneys, receipts, or income accruing to the department from the operation of the expressway system and from county gasoline tax funds and may also pay, as rentals, any appropriations received by the department pursuant to any act of the Legislature heretofore or hereafter enacted wherein the appropriations are expressly authorized to be used as rentals for the expressway system.

County gasoline tax funds may not be pledged as rentals under such lease-purchase agreement without the consent of each county located within the geographic boundaries of the authority, evidenced by a resolution duly adopted by the board of county commissioners of each such county at a public hearing held pursuant to due notice thereof published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least once a week for 3 consecutive weeks before the hearing. The resolution, among other things, must provide that any excess of the pledged gasoline tax funds which is not required for debt service, or reserves for such debt service, for any bonds issued by the authority be returned annually to the department for distribution to the county as provided by law.

The department may covenant in any lease-purchase agreement that it will pay all or any part of the cost of the operation or maintenance of an expressway system.

Each expressway system shall be a part of the State Highway System as defined in s. 334.03, and the department may, upon the request of an authority, expend, out of any funds available for the purpose, such moneys, and use such of its engineering and other forces as may be necessary and desirable in the judgment of the department, for the operation of the authority and for traffic surveys, borings, surveys, preparation of plans and specifications, estimates of cost, and other preliminary engineering and other studies.