Thursday, February 17, 2011

Rick Scott Ignored Rail's Facts

By Joanie Schirm, Orange County League of Women Voters, Transportation Committee. Published on OrlandoSentinel.com on February 17, 2011

On Wednesday our governor decided to cancel high-speed rail to save tax dollars and concentrate on putting people to work in other ways.

This man just doesn't get it. Now single-handedly, he has denied future generations of Floridians and visitors the opportunity to ride on a world-class transportation system that would have created thousands of jobs just when we need them the most. And we had the federal government and private sector willing to make it happen for us.

Let's review Florida's circumstance: In 1956, when the interstate highway system began, we started paying federal gas tax. Since then, Florida has been a donor state, paying $5 billion more to the federal government than we received back for highways and mass transit.

This money was sent to other states, producing millions of jobs and numerous highway and transit projects for others — not us.

By federal law, up to 20 percent of gas taxes we pay the federal government must go to transit. It can't be used for roads. We haven't come close to our 100 percent share back on either account — roads or transit. Florida was positioned to receive some of its own money back in a mammoth way — federal funding of close to $3 billion toward high-speed rail.

This is a no brainer: It would have been our money coming back to us to nearly completely fund this large infrastructure project connecting Orlando to Tampa. Our governor has concocted bogus statements as he canceled the project before Floridians could hear from credible ridership studies revealing the facts for a system between Tampa and Orlando.

Our new governor should proceed with the private-sector proposals for the system's guaranteed maximum price to build, operate and manage the system for the state. Private companies have already said they would guarantee costs (so no state risk in overruns), and they would be willing to make up the funds not coming from the federal government to pay capital.

Only in that way can Scott be authentic in assessing if this system makes sense to accept the full federal money (our money after all) to achieve the fully integrated transportation system that we have planned for over 30 years.

Without credible ridership results and allowing private bids to arrive, which would have showed the private sector would have completed the funding for our system — our governor has denied Floridians the facts. How sad for future generations.

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