FL Gov rejects $2.4B in high speed rail money

Other states want the $

Marci Gilbert, Feb 18, 11.

Rick Scott, the new Tea Party-backed governor of Florida, is now the third Republican governor to tell Washington he doesn’t want federal money for new or improved passenger rail service, according to a story in New Urban Network. Following up on earlier givebacks of rail funds by new governors in Wisconsin and Ohio, Governor Scott announced Wednesday that he is turning down $2.4 billion in federal money intended for an 84-mile high-speed link between Orlando and Tampa.

Scott told a news conference in Tallahassee that cost overruns on the Tampa-to-Orlando line could force Florida taxpayers to pick up as much as $3 billion in expenses in future years. That claim was disputed by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., the ranking Democrat on a rail subcommittee. “There was no way that the state was going to be held liable for cost overruns,” Brown said. “Private companies were willing to partner with the state and pay any overruns.”

Supporters of high-speed rail in Florida were left “scrambling to salvage” the proposed line, The St. Augustine Record said in an article available here. “U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, chairman of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee, said they are still looking into ways to get the system built,” the Florida paper reported.

“This is more than a hiccup,” said Mica, who has been enthusiastic about getting high-speed rail that would serve Orlando and the millions of people going to and from the Disney theme parks. “But there are still ways to do it.”

The greater likelihood is the the federal money will be reallocated to projects in other states. A chief contender is a high-speed line from the Los Angeles area to the San Francisco area — the first leg of which is to be built in the Central Valley.

Source: New Urban Network