Nelson: Florida must move quickly to get federal stimulus money for high-speed rail

by George Bennett | November 12th, 2009

Nelson

WEST PALM BEACH — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, meeting this morning with local elected officials, said the state legislature must act quickly to pledge money for Tri-Rail and other high-speed rail projects or lose out on as much as $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money.

He urged state lawmakers to approve money for the rail projects in a special session in December because federal grants will be announced in January.

“If they (state legislators) put it to next spring, that’s too late,” said Nelson, who offered to make phone calls to lawmakers to push for quick action.

“You’re going to have to show that you support Tri-Rail and commuter rail,” Nelson told the group, which includes some state legislators, Palm Beach County commissioners and city officials at West Palm Beach City Hall.

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Tags: Tri-Rail

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:51 am and is filed under Bill Nelson, George Bennett. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Nelson: Florida must move quickly to get federal stimulus money for high-speed rail”

1. dg Says:
   November 12th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

   So we have to waste state money to get stimulus money? Kind of defeats the purpose of stimulus money, doesn’t it? Politicians still playing games with our money and there’s nothing we can do about it except not pay taxes and go to jail.

2. Waste By Politicians Says:
   November 12th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

   In the past I have sometimes voted for Nelson and supported him on some issues.
   Lately he is out of whack with reality.
   I have put him right on the list with Grayson and other incumbants. Just say no to all incumbants. You might lose a good one or two but the loss will be with the victory to take back the United States of America from these disconnected brain dead politicians.

3. Joe Hardy Says:
   November 13th, 2009 at 1:17 am

   Get it done. It costs about as much as a new divided highway. But we can certainly afford it. High Speed rail destroys air travel in head to head competition. That’s because its much better.