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BONITA SPRINGS — The freeing up of the controversial $10 million Coconut Road interchange earmark has Lee and Collier counties butting heads over the money.

The disagreement over where to spend the money could even land before the Regional Planning Council for arbitration.

Or maybe not.

Congress set up a scramble for the cash — now about $9.2 million instead of the original $10 million — by allocating it to “Interstate 75 improvements in Lee and Collier County.”

That makes it a matter for the joint Metropolitan Planning Organization, a cross-county board created by agreement between the two counties. It’s composed of members of the two county MPOs, who are elected officials from county and city governments who get together to make road-building priorities.

Lee County MPO planners recommend the money be spent on improvements to the Bonita Beach Road interchange with I-75. The recommendation has unanimous support on the Lee MPO.

Collier MPO planners have recommended as much as $2.5 million of the money go to the Immokalee Road interchange instead, with the rest going to Bonita Beach Road. Not surprisingly the Collier MPO prefers that approach.

“Obviously the staffs are working very hard trying to reach an amicable solution,” said Phil Tindall, MPO director for Collier County. “People need to feel like they’re for their own community. I’m not criticizing anyone.”

They better keep working. Two committees that make recommendations to the joint MPO met Thursday to discuss the $10 million. Each consists of individual county committees melded together.

The Thursday votes were split along county lines. Collier lost. Tindall’s Lee counterpart Don Scott said it’s unlikely either county recommendation will change.

That’s because the makeup of MPOs and their committees is governed by population and the number of cities. There are 12 members and 12 votes on Collier’s MPO. There are 17 members on the Lee MPO.

On Thursday, Collier committee members were simply outnumbered. On October 17, Collier MPO members will be, too.

“Working in joint fashion is relatively new,” said Lee chief transportation planner Dave Loveland. “The emphasis has been on regional funding and a regional push. The voting mix was never really an issue. Now there’s money on the table and everyone is grabbing for it.”

Loveland’s Collier counterpart Nich Casalanguida said Collier should get some of the money. The county is already spending not quite $17 million out of the $24 million needed at the Immokalee interchange. The state is also handing Collier the short end of $2.3 billion in long-range transportation plan funding, Casalanguida said, with Collier getting $10 million while over $500,000 goes to projects in Lee County.

“We’re going through that Alligator Alley lease thing, too,” he said. “We don’t exactly support it. It’s like if we support the Alligator Alley lease maybe there’s some money.”

Collier Commissioner Jim Coletta said the rumor is out there that Collier’s state funding dried up when it expressed opposition to the lease.

“I think it’s because of the Collier commissions’ stance on Alligator Alley,” Coletta said.

Coletta said when the joint MPO meeting rolls around the first thing the boards should discuss is how this whole joint approach should work.

“I would hope the first order of business is to understand how the world is put together, how we can work together,” he said. “Lee County has a bigger population. Collier has a bigger land area and bigger need.”

If it’s apparent the numbers have been stacked against Collier, Coletta said, he won’t vote.

“If it’s one man, one vote I won’t participate,” he said. “Why would I put my county at a disadvantage just because another county has more people?”

Coletta said if someone can explain to him why Lee should get more votes just because it has more cities he might go along.

“I can’t come up with any logic why,” he said.

Of course Congress did allocate the money to the state. That means that within the two counties District Secretary Stan Cann will have the final say. Cann was unavailable.

“We will go to the joint meeting and we want to hear the discussion there,” said FDOT spokeswoman Debbie Tower.

Tower said Bonita Beach Road is a “very good candidate” because it’s the closest interchange to the county line and would serve both counties. Traffic studies have shown 20 percent of the traffic going through the interchange is either headed to or coming from Collier.

The final call belongs to Cann, but there is a possible out. The joint MPO agreement calls for arbitration if the groups cannot agree. The arbitrator would be the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, to which both counties belong.

“We know what Lee County wants,” Tower said. “We’re going to hear what Collier wants and what the joint MPO wants.