(The following story by Dan Tracy appeared on the Orlando Sentinel website on May 3, 2009.)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — SunRail was, in the language of the state Legislature, a heavy lift.
By the legislative session’s 60th and final day, the bill to authorize the proposed Central Florida commuter train might as well have weighed as much as a diesel locomotive, or roughly 200 tons.
It was weighted down by a dogged opponent, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, who harped on proposed state payments of more than $600 million and preferable insurance treatment as a “giveaway” to the giant CSX Corp.
Then there was the state’s $6 billion revenue shortfall. A general unwillingness to spend so much money on a project with a projected ridership of 3,200 a day. And the peculiar nature of the Florida Senate, where long-ago victories and defeats create present-day alliances.
“There’s 100 reasons,” said a weary Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, who waged an uphill fight that finally ended Friday with a 16-23 vote against him.
Here’s a look at some of the factors that killed the train, which would have run along 61.5 miles of track from DeLand through downtown Orlando to Poinciana by 2013.
A corporate giveaway?
Dockery, who last year kept the commuter train from coming to a vote by protesting a provision that would have exempted its operation from lawsuits, this year focused her opposition on CSX, the Jacksonville-based company that owns the tracks SunRail would have run on.
On Friday, Dockery left a paperback book in the office of every senator called Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill). A bookmark with the words “Deal or No Deal” was placed in the third chapter, which detailed CSX insurance arrangements in another state.
“It’s a bad deal … a giveaway,” she said over and over — much to the annoyance of SunRail proponents.
They say Dockery effectively, but unfairly, demonized the state’s agreement to pay CSX $432 million for 61.5 miles of tracks it owns and some related system improvements, and spend an additional $173 million on grade-crossing improvements.
“Messaging is everything,” said Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando. “The message was shaped before we ever got engaged.”
A complicated argument
Constantine tried to frame the argument as the future of mass transit in Florida.
His reasoning: Though the SunRail bill primarily sought to set up a $200 million liability arrangement to assign responsibility for accidents on the system, it also set a precedent for future commuter trains. Among the areas seeking stops or systems are Tampa, Jacksonville and Lakeland.
He also added a sweetener for South Florida, which is looking at service cuts at the Tri-Rail commuter train in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
He offered South Florida lawmakers a local-option rental-car surcharge subject to county commissions’ approval. In a nod to no-tax Republicans, voters could repeal the tax in a 2010 referendum — a date Constantine later extended to 2014.
The offer would have raised $50 million to $180 million for Tri-Rail, but it garnered only two extra votes instead of the anticipated five or six.
That baffled Gardiner and Constantine.
“Isn’t that amazing?” Constantine said.
In the end, Constantine had what he called “a 15-minute argument.” By contrast, he said, Dockery’s pitch “takes 15 seconds.”
Money talks
SunRail failed to pick up two votes in the heart of its would-be service area: Sens. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, and Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.
Their opposition was founded, in part, on the cost of the deal. Siplin said he wanted more money for education, even if it came out of transportation trust funds — historically frowned upon by the Senate.
Lynn was worried about the insurance policy, saying that the state could be on the hook for millions of dollars in the case of an accident, even if it were caused by CSX.
Money was a powerful argument against the train, especially given the backdrop of budget-cutting the Legislature has been engaged in because of the recession. Both chambers had gone into special session in January to cut more than $2 billion.
“You look at that,” Gardiner said, “and it only makes sense that it’s an uphill battle.”
Leadership failure?
John Thrasher, one of the state’s most influential lobbyists, who was working for SunRail on behalf of the city of Orlando, said a major problem was the fact that the train was something new.
“Big ideas sometimes take time to ferment and grow,” said Thrasher, a former House speaker.
Though he would not point his finger at anyone in particular, Thrasher said “leadership” failed SunRail.
“To pass a big idea like this takes a lot of leadership,” he said.
Gov. Charlie Crist, Senate President Jeff Atwater, R- North Palm Beach, and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon, R- Winter Park, all publicly pushed for SunRail.
But there was little sign of the arm-twisting and in-your-face “persuasion” that usually characterize high-stakes campaigns.
Cannon never was asked to get a House vote because the bill died in the Senate. But supporters grumbled privately that he didn’t try to use his clout on senators.
Crist courted a half-dozen or more senators in the final days and even reversed his opposition to the 2014 rental-car tax referendum. But he said little publicly.
Atwater made sure the bill got favorable committee references and worked with Constantine and Gardiner to get it to the floor — which never happened last year. At the end of the session, he was complimented by both sides for his “fairness.”
Grudges and alliances
For Constantine, it seemed that no matter what he did, there was always something else to fight.
Through a series of tortuous talks, he and his backers removed the objections of trial lawyers, the city of Lakeland and, they thought, won the backing of South Florida.
But some of what did them in, proponents grumbled privately, had nothing to do with the train.
They point to old alliances and feuds, such as Sen. Jim King, R- Jacksonville, repaying Dockery for joining him in 2005 to oppose legislation that would have prevented the removal of the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who was in a persistent vegetative state.
Then there are the alleged bad feelings between Atwater and Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami. Both ran for the president’s post two years ago; Atwater won.
Villalobos, who used Senate rules to keep SunRail from getting a vote last year, also is a good friend of Dockery’s. And Dockery herself was said to be motivated by her dislike of former Gov. Jeb Bush, who inked the CSX deal after leading the fight against a high-speed train favored by C.C. “Doc” Dockery, the senator’s husband.
Last year, when SunRail went down, backers could console themselves with the fact that they could try again. This time, the agreement with CSX expires June 30.
A CSX spokesman said that there won’t be a third attempt.
The loss was difficult for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to take. Moments after the final vote, he said, “We hadn’t considered not being successful.”