The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a program that could give regular commuters a refund at the end of the year.
But like all rebates, there’s some fine print.
The new Cash Back Toll Dividend Program empowers MDX to refund users a percentage of their tolls if the organization happens to be running a budget surplus.
“The thought behind the program was that we would turn our customers and our commuters into [something] similar to our investors,” Marie Schafer, MDX’s chief financial officer, said to the board. “So now they have a financial stake in the expressway system.”
The refunds would only be for SunPass users in good standing who spend at least $100 per year in tolls and are enrolled in MDX’s Advantage Program. Drivers will have from July 13 through August 31 to enroll if they haven’t already.
Before giving any money back to commuters, MDX will first pay off existing “financial obligations,” a press release explained. “Making its annual principal and interest payments, meeting its senior debt coverage ratio, and covering its operation and maintenance costs.”
During Tuesday’s MDX board meeting, Schafer spoke only in theoretical refunds. But afterward, MDX chairwoman Maritza Gutiérrez told the Miami Herald the potential dividend pool could be around $3 million this year.
The program comes about six months after MDX added more tolls on SR 112 and SR 836, the Dolphin Expressway. That “Tollmageddon” garnered its share of outrage from the community.
“Our group is not anti-toll, I want to set the record straight about that,” says Carlos Garcia, whose Roll Back The Tolls watchdog group has been critical of MDX. But he says the dividends are a step in the right in the direction.
“If there’s money left over, the toll-payer should be refunded,” Garcia says.
