When you look at laws that appear to make no sense, there’s usually something rotten lurking under the surface.

That’s the case with this year’s sudden, unplanned expansion of toll roads in Florida — a move that didn’t originate from the Florida Department of Transportation and sidestepped the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

First of all, Florida already has more toll roads than any other state, with over 700 miles of them. And despite rosy projections on how they will pay for themselves, it sometimes doesn’t work out that way.

A case in point is the Suncoast Parkway, which began as a 42-mile toll road that connected Hillsborough to Hernando counties on Florida’s West Coast. The $507 million highway was projected to bring in $150 million a year by the year 2014. Instead, it brought in $22 million, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

This month, the Florida Legislature voted to extend the Suncoast Parkway all the way to the Georgia State Line.

This is a real head-scratcher. The state had long planned to extend the parkway to the existing Interstate 75. But this is a brand new 150-mile stretch of highway cutting through some of the most rural, uninhabited places in Florida.

Its route also puts some of Florida’s most treasured natural areas at risk, including the Ichetucknee, Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers and the network of natural springs that flow into them.

“It is the worst bill for Florida’s environment we have seen in more than 20 years,” the Sierra Club announced, calling on lawmakers to vote against it.

Even worse, nobody told Georgia. That’s right. A major Florida highway was approved to run through the Panhandle and dump into Thomas County, Georgia — a dot on the map with a population of 44,000 — without a heads up or a plan for traffic flow.

Doesn’t make sense, right? What’s the rush? Doesn’t this deserve a lot of planning and coordination?

The bill to extend the Suncoast Parkway to Georgia was part of a larger transportation bill that included two other new toll roads, all with a price tag of about $1 billion to Florida taxpayers over the next 10 years.

Passing it would mean that Florida taxpayers will be saddled with this large recurring expense coming out of the general fund, meaning there will be less to spend on other state needs, such as education, health care and water management.

The toll road legislation was championed by Florida Senate President Bill Galvano.

He justified what critics called “the toll road to nowhere bill” by saying that construction of the highway would bring jobs to rural communities and give Floridians a new hurricane evacuation route.

And he got support from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Trucking Association and the Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida.

But certainly, Gov. Ron DeSantis would veto this, right? After all, he’s the self-proclaimed “green governor” of Florida. He compared himself to Teddy Roosevelt, for cryin’ out loud.

So he surely wouldn’t allow what is being called the worst environmental bill in 20 years to become a law, right?

Wrong. DeSantis signed it without fanfare in a private ceremony.

"I think we need new roads in Florida to get around," he said afterward.

Like I said, this is one of those times when it helps to look for something rotten lurking under the surface.

And that’s where you will find the richest Floridian. You probably never heard of him.

He’s a Palm Beacher named Thomas Peterffy, a Hungarian immigrant and Mar-a-Lago Club member who made a fortune in discount digital brokering.

Last year, Forbes listed Peterffy as the 22nd richest person in America and the richest Floridian, with a net worth of about $20 billion.

He’s also well connected to the levers of power. In addition to his Mar-a-Lago membership, he is a $366,000 Trump campaign donor, a member of Gov. DeSantis’ campaign finance team, and a donor of more than $300,000 to DeSantis’ campaign.

Four years ago, Peterffy bought a tract of 561,000 acres of rural land in North Florida that stretches through Lafayette, Dixie and Taylor counties.

To give you an idea how much land that is, if you make a square with each side being 29.5 miles long, that’s slightly less than 561,000 acres.

“The master development plan came with the property, and it allows over 45,000 mixed-use development acres, 25,600 residential units and more than 10 million square-feet of industrial and non-residential land use,” reported the Florida Phoenix, a Tallahassee-based non-profit government and politics news site.

So it might be a toll-road-to-nowhere to the Floridians who will be paying for the road construction through these rural tracts, and also for other improvements, including sewers, water and broadband internet service.

And its price tag may also include significant degradation of Florida’s natural beauty — its calling card to the rest of the world.

And the people of rural South Georgia … well … Surprise! I guess they’ll just have to deal with an unplanned highway dumped on their doorsteps.

But it’s not all bad news: Florida’s Republican lawmakers went out of their way to give the wealthiest person in the state, and one of their deep-pocket donors, just what he needed.

It all makes sense when you think of it as “draining the swamp” in its original, non-metaphorical connotation.

At least we don’t have to harbor any delusions about our “green governor.”

Turns out, he may have been talking about the other kind of green.

fcerabino@gmail.com

@FranklyFlorida