KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Osceola and Volusia County leaders say they will have to revisit funding options for a series of multi-million dollar road improvement projects after voters in both counties rejected referendums to increase county sales tax rates.

Osceola County voters pushed back on raising their sales tax by one cent to 8.5 percent. It was pushed as a means to raise $2 billion over 30 years to fund more than a dozen road improvement projects.

That list of needed improvements include U.S. Highway 192 at Simpson Road, down to Boggy Creek Road.

“These roads are not sufficient enough for the traffic,” said Linda Costantin who lives nearby. “The bad thing is… as I go to cross (the road), these cars are still coming at me and I’ve almost gotten hit like 10 times.”

Crossing U.S. 192 is a fear Costantin lives with every day. Her friend Angel Pagan, 60, died May 9 after being hit by a car.

“He was one of the nicest guys you’d want to meet, never said no to anybody,” Costantin said.

The future of these improvement projects are now in question. Costantin says she is hopeful that funding will come somehow soon.

The how is something Osceola County Commissioners will have to figure out.

“We will discuss results of the special sales tax surtax referendum at the next meeting of the Board of County Commissioners,” Commission Chairwoman Cheryl Grieb said in a statement to Spectrum News 13. “The referendum represented an opportunity for Osceola County voters to weigh in on our transportation infrastructure and future planning efforts.”

Voters in Volusia County also rejected a move to increase sales tax rate.

“I was disappointed, really, but wasn’t surprised,” Volusia County Council Chairman Ed Kelley said.

Volusia voters reject proposed hike

Volusia County was hoping to increase their sales tax a half-penny to bring it to 7 percent in a bid to raise $900 million over 20 years.

Like Osceola County, Volusia County planned to use the sales tax revenues for various transportation and infrastructure improvement projects, many of which Kelley says have long been problems.

“City needs and county needs are still there and they existed last year and the year before and maybe even the year before,” Kelley said.

Part of the funding challenge, Kelly said, is that home values still don’t match the rates they were in 2006 before the depression.

Both counties are now going to be forced to determine whether funding can be moved from elsewhere in order to move forward on certain projects or if they may have to be delayed further.

“We can’t handle the current traffic efficiently, so we will have to try to find a way to do what we can, but we’re in this situation because putting off projects that should have been done if the funding had been there, and how much further down the proverbial road do you want to kick the can,” Kelley said.