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Florida ranks near the bottom in the race to secure federal stimulus dollars
for roads.

States are required to spend half of their transportation money
by the middle of June or they could lose them. Florida is one of five
states that haven’t had any transportation projects formally approved. Doug
Callaway, a transportation lobbyist, says the state has plenty of time to
meet the deadline.

“The larger issue is not where you start the race, in this instance lets use
a NASCAR analogy, It’s not where you start the race, it’s where you finish
it and I have no doubt what so ever in my mind DOT will meet that 120 day
deadline,” said Callaway.

Callaway says the first half of the state’s 1.3 billion stimulus dollars
will be easily claimed by meeting the deadline. He fears the state could
lose the other 650 million if a plan to raid 400 million dollars from the
state’s transportation trust fund gets legislative approval.