State lawmakers moved toward approving a new $2 rental-car surcharge to pay for Tri-Rail but with strings attached that supporters of the commuter rail line make the proposal virtually worthless.

The measure, tucked into a controversial Central Florida commuter rail bill, would allow county commissions to approve the fee hike temporarily by a super-majority vote but later require voter approval of a referendum to keep the surcharge intact.

The state now matches contributions from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties to pay for South Florida’s fast-growing commuter rail service. But local authorities have said their contributions will decline or disappear as they grapple to slash spending due to steep declines in property tax collections.

The surcharge would raise about $45 million a year for Tri-Rail.

Freshman Sen. Chris Smith sponsored an amendment including the referendum in exchange for a ‘yes’ vote on the Central Florida rail proposal in which the state would pay more than $600 million to CSX transportation giant to purchase its freight line and pay for improvements on its other lines. The state would also contribute more than $400 million to create the new commuter line. The proposed SunRail line is one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s priorities.

Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelltion, who serves on the commission that oversees Tri-Rail, said the proposal will do nothing to help the rail line at a time of record-breaking ridership.

“Make no mistake. I’m a proponent of rail. That’s not our issue. The issue is in order for rail to be successful and to keep from breaking the local taxpayers’ back you have to have a dedicated funding source,” the former House representative said. “We’re the only state in the nation that does not have a dedicated funding source for rail. I mean, that’s a sad commentary for Florida. That’s not a very good signal to send to Congress at all.”

State lawmakers have never required a surcharge to go to a local referendum, and getting voter approval lessens the chances of the money continuing to come in even if the county commissions approve the surcharge, he said.

Smith said he hopes to get the referendum requirement out of the bill as it moves through the process.

“We’ve had noting. Now we’ve at least got a fighting chance,” said Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, whose district dips into Palm Beach County. Smith was on the winning side in a Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee 4-3 vote on the measure (SB 1212) today. Crist issued a press release praising the bill’s passage later in the day.

Lawmakers are relying on between $500 million and $1 billion in new or increased fees in the respective Senate and House budgets to help cover a $6 billion spending gap.

“We would have thought that with a half a billion dollars of fee increases and surcharge increases in this budget that the members here would have seen fit to just allow a surcharge increase on rental cars to take place,” Eggelletion said.

Smith said he may drop his support for the CSX deal if the referendum language is not stripped.

“If I’m fighting for my counties and my counties don’t want it, why continue to fight?” he said.

Tags: Charlie Crist, Palm Beach County commission, state budget, State Senate

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