Lawmakers against high speed rail before they were for it
by Michael C. Bender | December 4th, 2009
Proposed high speed rail line in Florida
Florida voters eventually flip-flopped on the high-speed rail issue before anyone in Tallahassee, but its still worth noting that a handful of the Republicans drumming up support for the special session bill also voted earlier this decade to repeal the constitutional mandate for high speed rail. The special session bill would pay for commuter rail lines in an effort to convince the federal government to spend $2.5 billion building a bullet train in the state.
Some of those who supported the repeal were House Speaker Larry Cretul, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, House budget Chairman David Rivera, House Economic Development & Community Affairs Council Chairman David Murzin and Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Andy Gardiner, who voted for the repeal four times.
See the votes here, here, here and here.
Tags: High-speed rail
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
December 5th, 2009 at 7:06 am
What a waste. This a Atwater/Cretul Tallahassee he-coon money grab and political quid pro quo at taxpayer expense. Have you seen Amtrak and TriRail making money? Will fixed-income seniors pay these fares on a regular basis? Follow the money - who gets rich off this adventure? Better idea: taxpayers - buy what you desperately need - local light rail. Or, if you are happy with bus service, spend money to improve education instead.
December 5th, 2009 at 9:00 am
This high-speed rail idea is just a boondoggle.
1. Florida isn’t intensely populated enough to make public transportation economically feasible.
2. The train idea is not the best way too provide transportation. Trains have to run on a schedule, requiring too much planning and waiting. A better plan would be fleets at the terminals which could be rolled out ANY TIME OF DAY OR NIGHT WHEN PASSENGERS ARRIVED. Thus Floridians could fly any time they wished, not wait for scheduled trains.
December 6th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
The Senate President Jeff Atwater and his fellow thugs like Mike Fasano have exercised the worst type of tyrany by hammering and threatening other legislators to vote for this very bad legislation because they are greedy, avaricious and corrupt to the core.
This is worse than the mafia. At least the Corleone Family was honest in their criminal intent. Atwater, Fasano, Thrasher, Constantine, Haridopolos, Cannon, Alexander and the rest of the blatantly corrupt Republican Mobsters in the Florida Senate and House want to rape the vulnerable taxpayers of this state rather than put their considerable pressure on FDOT to renegotiate the terms of the rail purchase deal to be far less expensive.
But this deal is not so much about the merits of passenger rail as it is about corporate welfare and land development. Go back to the drawing board until a more fiscally responsible deal can be hatched, in the Sunshine so all the taxpayers can see it.
We don’t need this bloated increase in government (Enterprises and Rail Authorities) to cover the fact that the political leadership of Florida is bailing out a Fortune 500 corporation with taxpayer money in order to feather their own corrupt nests.
Who is getting what reward? Campaign contributions? Jobs for after-office? Developer cash-ola? Corporate Board Appointments? Lucrative CSX warehousing contracts and a toll road into the family agricultural property they want to develop?
This culture of corruption and the hideous tyrany of those in power must be stopped! Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave!! Aren’t Republican values supposed to be LESS Government and Fiscal Conservatism?
December 7th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
[...] bill is targeted at winning $2.5 billion from the pot of federal stimulus money to build a high-speed rail system in the state. State lawmakers believe the best way to do that is to impress the feds with their [...]