The announcement formalized the demise of the Obama Administration’s desire to build the first U.S. high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. The president and transit supporters said the project would have created thousands of badly needed construction jobs and modernized the area’s transportation system, but the governor characterized high-speed rail as an expensive boondoggle.
Florida will continue to send elsewhere a disproportionate share of money collected from the state’s federal taxpayers. Florida TaxWatch reported in January that Florida ranked 33rd in per capita federal tax burden but 48th in per capita grant dollars received in 2009.
“These jobs should have come to Florida,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa said. “It is disappointing to see Florida taxpayers’ dollars flowing to other states. Citizens and businesses across Florida fought hard to win the jobs and investments tied to high speed rail, but the governor sent the jobs to other states in one fell swoop.”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said,“ Secretary LaHood’s announcement was a somber reminder that Florida lost a major new transportation system and 24,000 good-paying jobs simply because of political extremism, a mindset that we had to do it the governor’s way or get lost. “
Critics of high-speed rail contend the money should be used to reduce the federal debt, and passenger transportation should be left to the private sector.
“Federally funded rail is like being given a brand new Maserati and then you have to pick up the gas and the insurance – forever,” said Doug Guetzloe, founder and chairman of Orlando-based Ax the Tax. “The car looks great, but the costs will kill you.
“Florida taxpayers should be delighted that these dollars, all borrowed, are going somewhere else. Ax the Tax salutes Gov. Scott on vetoing high speed rail. Using the same criteria, we hope he will follow through and kill SunRail,” Guetzloe said, referring to the Central Florida commuter rail line planned through Orlando.
Despite ideological, political and financial high-speed rail issues that Scott and Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio raised, 11 Republican, 12 Democratic and one independent governor elsewhere requested $10 billion in 90 applications for the funds Scott rejected.
The grants Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday included $795 million to upgrade Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington and raise top speeds from 130 mph to 160 mph.
In addition, $404.1 million was granted Midwest states including rail improvements between Chicago and Detroit, and Chicago and St. Louis, along with $300 million for California's high speed rail project.
Despite the demise of high-speed rail in Florida in the near future, issues involving transportation improvements and Florida remaining a “tax donor’ state remain.
While paying more for federal taxes than receiving federal grants, Florida ranks 50th in the ratio of federal fuel tax allocations to payments for highways accounts, a 2010 Government Accountability Office report stated.
But Florida, like all states, receives more money for transportation grants than it pays in fuel taxes because Congress adds general revenue to the grant pot, Florida TaxWatch said.
That’s a fact critics overlook when pointing out that rail and transit systems require taxpayer support, transportation advocates say.
“We can not continue to rely on Interstate 4 alone as the backbone of our super region (between Tampa and Orlando), said Stuart Rogel, president and chief executive of the Tampa Bay Partnership, which oversees economic development in an eight-county region.
“Whether it is high speed rail or some other technology, it is not a question of “if” but a question of ‘when.’ Our vision for the region remains resolute.”
John Schueler, chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership, is president and chief executive of the Florida Communications Group, which includes The Tampa Tribune, News Channel 8 and tbo.com.