On Wednesday the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Committee discussed a county-wide 1% sales surtax that, if approved, would fund construction and repairs to Lee County roads. Lee County continues to grow in population and is having a hard time funding the roadway infrastructure needed to keep up with that growth.
As of 2025 Lee County has a list of 35 transportation projects (see below) with a total cost of $4.4 billion. $1 billion has either been spent or budgeted toward those projects and over $3.3 billion remains unfunded. On Fort Myers Beach, Estero Boulevard is owned by Lee County and the county just rebuilt the Big Carlos Pass Bridge.
The MPO Executive Committee discussed the surtax this week which could generate approximately $250 million per year in the first few years. Fort Myers Beach would see about $744,000 of that money. The only way this tax can become a reality is if the voters want it.
Fort Myers Beach Town Council member John King sits on the MPO Board which meets next Friday to discuss the surtax. We asked him whether he’s in favor of the surtax. “I’ll go in open minded. I’ll have questions I need answered before I make a decision.”
In order to make it on the 2026 November ballot, the sales surtax would need to be approved by a majority of the Lee County Board of Commissioners at a meeting in the next few months. There would then be a public education process (both for and against), then it would be placed on the ballot as a referendum where the voters would decide. Another option to get it on the ballot, if the Lee County Board does not approve it, would be to gather 30,000 verified registered voter signatures on a petition.
If approved by the voters, a Project Development & Environmental study would need to be done to determine the order for transportation projects that have not already gone through a PD&E study. Those studies are done if a project includes federal funding. Some road projects have already had PD&E studies completed on them. Projects that would use 100% local funds would not need a study.
MPO Executive Director Don Scott said a PD&E study could take 4 years. He knows of one that’s taken 18 months and another that took 17 years.
The surtax can be levied for up to 30 years.
The funds from the surtax would be deposited into a Lee County trust fund and can be used for planning, development, construction, operation, and maintenance of roads and bridges in the county; for the planning, development, expansion, operation, and maintenance of bus and fixed guideway systems; for the planning, development, construction expansion, operation, and maintenance of on-demand transportation services. Lee County Commissioner Kevin Ruane is a member of the MPO Executive Committee. He believes any tax like this should be focused 100% on building roads.
During Wednesday’s surtax presentation this chart was presented on how the funds might be distributed:
Derek Felder spoke during public comment at the MPO Executive Committee meeting. he’s in favor of imposing the surtax. “Adding a 1% infrastructure sales tax would be amazing for lee county. Everyone’s biggest complaint about the county is the traffic and congestion in our roads. If this tax were approved by the voters in November it would mean adding a quarter of a billion dollar revenue stream every year and allow the county to get through the current dot project list in 12 years versus taking over 30 years to complete due to lack of funding for roads.“
Ruane threw a bit of cold water on the surtax idea. He said he doubts 3 Lee County Board Commissioners will vote in favor of the surtax. “Good luck. It’s political in nature. We have 3 Commissioners up for election. We have not raised the millage rate in 25 years and you’re going to ask someone running for election in a Republican County to vote for an increase in the sales tax? I don’t see 3 votes.”
The next step is for the full MPO Board to discuss it one week from today at a 9AM meeting being held in downtown Fort Myers in the administration building. The meetings are not streamed live. The audio of the meeting is recorded and posted to the MPO website after the meeting concludes. The meetings are open and they do take public comment.
Ruane plans to bring it up with the full Commission at an upcoming meeting to see if there’s interest to have it put on the ballot.
Here is the most recent list of projects from Lee County. It’s expected to be updated in the first quarter of 2026.
If Governor Rick Scott had not curtailed local governments from raising impact fees and making growth pay for itself during his tenure (2011-2019), we wouldn’t be in this fix.