(The following story by Nicola M. White appeared on The Tampa Tribune website on March 13.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It would link Orlando’s sprawling suburbs, ease traffic on bottlenecked Interstate 4 and spur an economic boom in Central Florida.
At least that’s what Orlando-area lawmakers said Wednesday about the CSX rail project, a proposal that calls for the Florida Department of Transportation to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy miles of train tracks for an expansive commuter and freight rail system.
The $491 million project has raised red flags for critics who ask why the state should dole out so much taxpayer money to benefit a for-profit company. Others are leery about a provision in the deal that would make the state – not CSX – liable for train accidents, even those the company causes while using the rail line.
Flanked by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Central Florida legislators at a news conference Wednesday did not address those points. Instead, they focused on the project’s benefits and pushed for the Legislature to move the deal forward.
“Florida’s economy is run by two things: one, moving people; the other is moving freight,” said Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden. “We need it. We need it in Central Florida, but the state of Florida needs it, too.”
Although the Central Florida members of the House and Senate count this project as their No. 1 priority this year, it could be a tough sell to the rest of the Legislature, in which some vocal opposition has been surfacing.
Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, is among the most ardent critics. Although she says she agrees with the idea of a commuter rail system, she is not keen about other aspects of the deal, which include spending state money to improve CSX’s freight rail lines. Improving the lines means adding more trains that would rumble through downtown Lakeland.
“I never imagined in serving 12 years in the Legislature that we would spend taxpayers’ money to help a for-profit company and then especially at the expense of communities who have done everything they’ve been asked to do in terms of growth management, everything they’ve been asked to do to revitalize downtowns,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “And we do that and you come in and completely ruin our quality of life.”
The deal with CSX was not done in the public eye, critics assert. In 2005, the Legislature approved about $3 billion for the Florida Department of Transportation to make infrastructure improvements. Somewhere in the package was money that would go toward the commuter and freight rail project, but some lawmakers say that provision was never made clear.
“That’s what’s so frustrating. They did this in secret over a period of years and now it’s very difficult to unravel the deal that’s not a good deal for taxpayers’ money,” Dockery said.
Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who chairs the Senate transportation and economic development appropriations committee, also has expressed concerns about the project, particularly how it might affect traffic in the Tampa Bay area.
He also worries about the liability provision – the part of the deal the Legislature will likely get to vote on this session.
“You’re putting the taxpayers on the line,” Fasano said. “You’re putting the taxpayers’ money at risk because you’re holding CSX harmless.”
After the news conference Wednesday, Webster said concerns about liability are not enough to cancel the project.
“I think this is another way to throw sort of a wrench onto the tracks, trying to derail this. It’s not a real issue,” he said.