Miami Votes to Keep Tollbooths

MIAMI (AP) - Miami-Dade County voters Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a penny sales tax increase that would have removed toll booths on four heavily traveled roads.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, 67 percent of voters opposed the increase, said county elections official Michelle Brutus. Voter turnout was between 25 and 30 percent.

Voters were asked to consider raising the sales tax from 6.5 to 7.5 percent to pay for the county's $15.8-billion, 20-year transportation package.

The package sought to ease traffic woes in the nation's third-most congested metropolitan area and would have financed bus, train and highway expansion.

The additional tax was expected to raise about $240 million a year. The bulk of that, between $160 million and $180 million, would have been combined with matching federal funds to add eight

ail lines and 90 miles of track to the city's Metrorail system.

If it had passed, expressway tolls on State Roads 836, 874 and 112, and the Gratigny Parkway would have been abolished. The tolls were recently doubled to 50 cents.