The board overseeing the embattled Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority on Monday accepted its executive director’s resignation and reached an agreement with the Florida state government to build a long-planned beltway.
Mike Snyder, who has headed up the agency for the past seven years, told the board that he would step down at the end of December instead of next March, as he previously announced.
Snyder announced his resignation recently after an authority board member, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, strongly criticized the OOCEA’s financial problems and the reasons Snyder gave for a toll increase several years ago.
The Expressway Authority had planned to use toll increases to build the $1.8 billion Wekiva Parkway and to finish the 25-mile beltway around heavily congested Interstate 4. But then the recession took hold, toll collections fell, and toll hikes were used to bolster debt-service coverage levels and the agency’s ratings.
About $1 billion of the authority’s debt was variable rate, with associated swaps and letters of credit, that the board began restructuring this year. At the same time, studies were under way to determine how to pay for the Wekiva beltway.
The OOCEA on Monday reached a tentative agreement with the state to fund a portion of the Wekiva, according to published reports.
The state Department of Transportation reportedly will issue bonds for the project, with contributions from the authority. Details on the structure have yet to be finalized.
The board is expected to begin deciding how it will proceed with replacing Snyder at its meeting in December.
