Scott ripped for SunRail OK

Rick Scott ripped for SunRail OK:

"Gov. Rick Scott's approval Friday of an Orlando-area commuter rail project drew blistering rebukes from both his tea party base and supporters of the high-speed rail project that Scott scuttled earlier this year."

The governor endorsed the $1.28 billion, 61-mile SunRail commuter project that will cost the state more than a half-billion dollars.

The project has the backing of Orlando-area elected and business officials and U.S. Rep John Mica, R-Winter Park, who is deciding whether to approve $75 million in dredging funds Scott has sought for the Port of Miami.

In February, Scott rejected a $2.4 billion federal allocation to launch a statewide high-speed rail project at no cost to Florida, disagreeing with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and state transportation officials who said the federal government, the private sector and passenger revenue would pay for the Tampa-Orlando segment.

"These are two totally different projects; it's like comparing apples to oranges," Scott said at a media luncheon in St. Petersburg following the SunRail announcement that he delegated earlier in the day to his transportation secretary in Tallahassee.

"If you take the high-speed project, that was a federal project that they decided they wanted to put here, and they were not going to fund all the parts of it," he said.

That was a reference to about $300 million required to complete funding the high-speed project, which private companies said they would provide if they won the contract. Scott scuttled the project before putting it out to bid.

But Florida taxpayers will pay $651.6 million for SunRail.

The state will pay:

•$432 million to purchase the CSX track the commuter trains will use during the day and to improve an alternate CSX route between Ocala and Lakeland to remove daytime freight operations from the commuter tracks.
•$153.75 million for its 25 percent share of capital costs. Five local governments will chip in another 25 percent, while the federal government will pay 50 percent of the design-build costs for SunRail.
•$65.85 million to operate and maintain SunRail for its first seven years of operation, after which city and county jurisdictions will take over funding.

Although former Republican Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist were advocates for SunRail, the Legislature initially rejected it following critical news accounts of the project.

Lawmakers endorsed the project after Mica said state SunRail funding would be required for Florida to get federal high-speed rail money.

SunRail is expected to carry 4,300 weekday passengers on conventional train cars when it opens by May 2014. It will carry 7,400 passengers by 2030, 15 years after the system is expanded from its initial 31-mile segment.

It will not serve the Orlando attractions or Orlando International Airport. (By contrast, the light-rail system Hillsborough County voters rejected in November was projected to carry 21,250 daily passengers on a 28-mile route, with no state funding.)

"I don't know that I would have made the decision to go forward with this if I had been around three or four years ago, but I walked in with this passed," Scott said.

That didn't satisfy supporters of the high-speed rail project that Scott rejected or tea party advocates.
Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who supported high-speed rail but opposed SunRail, said in her blog that Scott betrayed the trust of the conservative electorate by moving forward with the least cost-efficient commuter rail project in the nation.

"This decision has completed the governor's transformation from businessman to political insider," Dockery said.

"It is unclear if, when making the decision, the governor had a change of heart, if he simply succumbed to the desires of the big money special interests, or if he has a severe case of amnesia and thought that he was supposed to be representing CSX instead of Florida's taxpayers."

Karen Jaroch, chairwoman of the Tampa 912 Project and a tea party advocate, said now that the decision has been made, she hopes SunRail bucks the trend and does not follow in the footsteps of "subsidy-laden" Amtrak and Tri-Rail.

"We will not give a pass to the governor on this, nor will we overlook the myriad politicians who told us privately that SunRail is a boondoggle but wouldn't stand up for Floridians by coming out publicly for fear of standing up to corporate interests and political elites," Jaroch said.

Doug Guetzloe, founder of Orlando-based Ax The Tax, said Scott abandoned the taxpayers of Florida who will respond in kind.

"He's fired as an advocate for taxpayers," Guetzloe said.

Democrats were predictably critical.

"Governor Scott used all the right arguments to green light the wrong rail project," state Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa said. "It had everything to do with hypocrisy and allegiance to his Republican brethren."
Scott's approval represents a victory for Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a longtime champion of SunRail who Scott previously spurned with his high-speed rail rejection.
In April, Mica, in an interview with Orlando public radio station WMFE, said he would make his decision on Scott's request for port dredging funds "about the time he makes his decision" on SunRail.

Mica on Friday likened the significance of the SunRail project to Henry Flagler bringing the railroad to Florida and President Dwight Eisenhower initiating the Interstate Highway System.