Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, adamantly defended before a room of Central Florida business leaders a proposal by two of his chief lieutenants to consolidate county transit boards.

“Darn right we’ll support Senator Simmons,” Gaetz told members of the Tiger Bay Club during a legislative preview at the Citrus Bowl on Friday.

“I’m not from this area, but I visit this area often and I don’t think the transportation issues in Central Florida are respectful to county lines and city boundaries,” Gaetz added, his comments greeted with silence from an audience that had earlier applauded proposals to revamp ethics and education in the state.

“I don’t think we gain anything by Balkanizing a transportation problem that is truly region.”

Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, and Senate President-designate Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, are still working on the details of the bill they have proposed to create a single transit authority for the Metro Orlando region -- Seminole, Osceola and Orange counties and Orlando -- called the Central Florida Expressway Authority.

Orange County commissioners, concerned that toll money raised in their county would go to projects outside the area, rejected the concept last November

"I don't mind seeing a regional board, but I would like to make sure what we are doing here stays here," Walter Ketcham, chairman of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday.

Osceola County Expressway Authority Chairman Atlee Mercer also expressed skepticism.

"What is the goal to making such a wrenching change to an effectively running system?" Mercer said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "Regionalism is a very good thing, but nobody has told me the purpose of doing this."

The negative reaction hasn’t deterred the legislators.

A similar proposal last year by Simmons to mesh the agencies into a single entity failed to advance in the Legislature.

Gaetz, who is heading into his first session as Senate president, sees merits in the plan.

“I don’t think you need a transportation authority in Orange County and another in Osceola County and another being resuscitated in Seminole County and
probably Lake County is next,” Gaetz said. 

“I think if you have a regional issue like you do in Central Florida, let’s have people who can look at the problem regionally and come up with a regional solution.”

Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.