(The following story by Catherine Dolinski appeared on the Tampa Tribune website on April 8, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Senate panel changed its $65.6 billion budget proposal Tuesday to calm opponents of the state’s deal with the CSX Corp. to build commuter rail in Central Florida.
Sen. Paula Dockery and other SunRail opponents cried foul Monday upon discovering language about the $1.2 billion project buried deep in the Senate’s 376-page budget plan. The two paragraphs authorize the state to “complete an escrowed closing on the Central Florida Rail Corridor Acquisition.”
Dockery, R-Lakeland, said the language created an opportunity for proponents to sidestep committee votes on controversial liability issues surrounding the project. If the project appears in the state budget, she warned, the controversial “no-fault” protection that CSX is seeking as part of the deal could be slipped into a companion implementing bill.
The state plans to buy the necessary rail from CSX and then lease it back to CSX for its freight operations. The railroad wants to make the state responsible for the cost of accidents involving commuter trains on the line, even if they were the fault of CSX. That proposal faces an uncertain fate in the Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee.
Tuesday, when the Senate’s budget proposal came up for approval in the Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Alex Villalobos proposed rewriting the SunRail language to make the project contingent upon lawmakers approving the standalone liability legislation.
“This is something that’s so big, there ought to be an up-or-down vote on it,” said Villalobos, R-Hialeah, who opposes SunRail.
The Ways and Means panel accepted Villalobos’ amendment in lieu of more extreme proposals from Democrats to strip out the budget language entirely or redirect all funding for the project to other parts of the budget.
Asked whether his amendment would prevent proponents from slipping liability language into a budget implementing bill, Villalobos said, “Technically, anything can happen until session is over.” But he’ll be watching, he said.
Ways and Means Chairman JD Alexander, a strong supporter of the rail deal, said the language was never intended to sidestep the committee process.
The language, which ties the escrowed closing money to federal approval of a grant for the project, was intended only to prevent the use of state money on the project before the federal funding is approved, Alexander said.
In other words, said Alexander, R-Lake Wales, the budget language was intended and remains “a limitation on the proponents – not the opponents.”