(The following story by Aaron Deslatte appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on December 3.)
ORLANDO — State Senate President Jeff Atwater named two Central Florida lawmakers who are stong backers of the region’s commuter rail dreams to key committee chairmanships Wednesday.
Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, was tapped to lead the Senate Transportation Committee and Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, was chosen to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Last spring, you might recall, the complex insurance liability agreement CSX Corp. wanted before signing off on Central Florida’s $1 billion-plus commuter rail deal got stalled on the tracks when then-Judiciary Chairman Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, demanded the bill go through his committee since it dealt with granting state-sponsored immunity from lawsuits to private companies working on the tracks.
Now it is a whole lot more likely to get a hearing in the Senate. In fact, seven of the nine senators appointed Wednesday to the Transportation panel that would also likely hear the bill are from Central Florida: Gardiner; Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando; Constantine; Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera; Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis; Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indialantic; and — drum roll — Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, the fiercest critic of the CSX deal last spring.