Crist supports special legislative session for high-speed rail, gambling compact
by Michael C. Bender | October 19th, 2009Bowing to pressure from federal officials, Sen. Jeff Atwater said today he’d like a December special session to address rail issues.
Gov. Charlie Crist said this afternoon that he would welcome the reconsideration of a controversial commuter rail project that lawmakers failed to pass in the spring and another stab at a gambling compact with the Seminoles.
“That’s a great idea,” Crist said.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, meeting with leaders from Congress and the White House today over Medicaid and rail transit issues said he wants a December special session to show the federal government that Florida needs $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail.
“The President would like to give the Federal government an answer by the end of the year, December being the earliest we could feasibly have a special session. He plans to talk with the Speaker, Governor and Senate members in coming days,” Atwater’s spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said in an e-mail.
Here’s our front-page story this morning on some of the issues facing high-speed rail in Florida.
Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Sens. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, met with federal transportation officials and U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux today.
LeMieux, appointed by Crist, urged Florida lawmakers to get busy if they want to cash in on some of the $8 billion in high-speed rail funding available in the federal economic stimulus package.
“I think we heard today some encouragement as well as a little bit of a nudge that it’s time to think hard about how soon we could be communicating to our federal partners that Florida’s ready to go,” Atwater said.
Tags: Charlie Crist, gambling, George LeMieux, High-speed rail, Jeff Atwater, Seminoles, special session, transportation
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October 20th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Atwater listen up! It’s not ok to ask the citizens of Ohio, California, North Carolina, et. al. to pay for a rail system in Florida. It’s immoral. If the citizens of Florida want it, give them the oppurtunity to vote and they can pay for it.
This irresponsible spending and Statist Government has got to stop if this great Nation is to survive.
Socialism in ANY form is immoral and EVIL!
October 21st, 2009 at 7:50 am
[...] Florida governor Crist, now a Senate hopeful, flips back to open advocacy of new commuter rail … for now (PB Post) [...]