(The following story by James Miller appeared on the Daytona Beach News-Journal website on April 27, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With time running out for state lawmakers to reach a resolution, congressional backers of the proposed Central Florida SunRail visited the Capitol on Monday to make a late-hour push for the beleaguered commuter system.
The proposal for 61.5 mile rail system linking DeLand and metropolitan Orlando has become mired primarily because of the Senate’s reluctance to sign off on a controversial liability arrangement.
The partners in the rail deal can pull out if lawmakers don’t approve the arrangement by June 30.
And with the Legislature’s spring session drawing to a close, the window is closing.
“Let me just be clear: There is no perfect bill, but this is a perfect start, and if we’re going to move forward, we need to pass SunRail,” U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat, told reporters during a news conference with U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Winter Park Republican.
Brown and Mica told reporters a failure could cost Florida hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money for similar projects in the future.
The SunRail bill cleared a key Senate committee last week, and it’s ready to go to before the full Senate.
That’s unlikely to happen, though, if proponents don’t have the votes.
Late Monday, Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican who is carrying the bill in the Senate, said that because of the late date SunRail legislation most likely would have to be amended to another bill or sent from the House to be heard by the Senate before the scheduled end of the session Friday.
“The possibilities aren’t yet dried up,” he said.
Already tenuous, SunRail has become tangled in negotiations over a $6 billion state budget shortfall, with House leaders proposing to strip money from transportation trust funds to help balance the budget. Constantine said he didn’t think SunRail would be discussed on the Senate floor until that issue is resolved.
The session appeared likely to be extended because of the budget woes, though, and Constantine said the question of whether SunRail might be taken up in an extended session was being discussed.
SunRail is expected to cost the federal government, the state and five local partners — Volusia, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties and Orlando — $2.7 billion over 30 years, though the federal money hasn’t been locked in.
The project has strong support from some of Central Florida’s most powerful politicians and business groups, as well as Gov. Charlie Crist.
But the SunRail bill — which supporters envision as a template for future Florida commuter rail projects — also has drawn fire, particularly from opponents critical of proposed language that would shield the rail corridor’s current owner, CSX Transportation, from much liability for accident damages in the corridor.
The SunRail plan hinges on the sale of the corridor to the state and an agreement in which CSX then would lease the tracks for freight traffic.
Under the proposal, a state insurance policy would protect CSX from damages up to $200 million to anyone other than CSX employees in the rail corridor, regardless of who caused the accident.
“I think that the bill does not enjoy the support that it needs to transfer the liability off of a for- profit company and onto the backs of the taxpayers,” said a key opponent, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland.
“Right now, they appear to be at least six votes short,” she said, “and that’s a lot of senators to move.”