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High-Speed Rail Statists Fomenting Florida Voter Disenfranchisment

By: scipio62 (Diary)  |  February 21st, 2011 at 01:33 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Statists in the federal government and in Florida are pretty upset with Republican Gov. Rick Scott canceling Florida’s high-speed rail project. The statists are so upset they are willing to ignore the election that put Scott into office to keep the boondoggle alive. It would be comical if it weren’t so dangerous.

As reported by the Miami Herald, one of the leaders of these statists is Republican Rep. John Mica, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee:

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, floated a proposal to dramatically shrink the project to an Orlando International Airport to Walt Disney World link, cutting Tampa and Lakeland out of the mix, for now.

But it gets better. By better, I mean worse.

Remember, the whole point of high-speed rail is that it’s fast for long distances. But not in statist world:

Mica, who chairs the House transportation committee, said an initial 21-mile starter train, with a stop at the Orange County Convention Center, shows the best ridership potential and could even turn a profit.

[snip]

The shorter distance likely would take much of the high speed out of high-speed rail in Florida.

We’ve gone from the sublime to the surreal. To prove HSR can be profitable, they are going to build a short HSR track knowing the trains can’t possibly travel at high speeds and has a stop in between a 21-mile stretch of track. Oh that’s just freakin’ brilliant.

Also, Florida Democrats and the federal government are looking at ways of subverting the Florida state government [emphasis mine]:

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, shared a legal opinion from Tampa City Attorney Chip Fletcher. It contends that there are a variety of ways local governments could team up to create an umbrella government to accept grant money and oversee the rail project. And Fletcher’s opinion states that either the Florida Department of Transportation or the Legislature could assign the federal grant money over to the newly created agency.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave state lawmakers a week to come up with a plan to keep the money from going to other states.

“And since Secretary LaHood gave us one week from today, everyone went to work today,” Castor said.

Just as in Wisconsin, Florida voters elected Gov. Scott to rein in government spending and we have officials intent on ignoring those election results in order to benefit the Democratic Party and some Republicans at the expense of the voters. This is the ultimate form of voter disenfranchisement. Even though everyone knows there is no way to keep taxpayers at the state and federal level from having to endlessly subsidize this boondoggle, statists are proceeding faster than the train Mica wants built. The same statists who are lying about Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) destroying democracy are willing to destroy the democratic will of Florida’s voters by lying and cheating their way into this project.

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  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    Here is some video. I understand the organizers were happy with the turnout, and as usual are not counting on the media to report its success. I also understand that someone (like Sen. Bill Nelson) was floating that Rick Scott might change his mind, but they said Rick just sent out email re affirming his stand. He gave a Facebook link and encouraged people to check out the facts there: From his email:

    “Here are the facts about the project, and I ask you take action today to support this decision by sharing the facts on Facebook.“

    • fpete13527
  • fpete13527

    The statists at this event were an Obamination. They were MASSIVELY outnumbered by us (Scott supporters) though….and it was THEIR pitiful subversive event!!!!!.

    Also with regard to Mica. Mica really fits the progressive two-faced squish Republican mess that we have in federal, state, and local levels.

    Mica, and the statist left could care less about empowering Florida but rather are simply interested in their personal progressive lobbies – similar to Charlie Crist.

    Mica doesn’t care what Floridians want. He just cares about his buying his vote from progressive rail lobbyists

    Mica needs to go work on progressive rail in another state. He is not wanted here.

    As for Kathy “Castro/SEIU” Castor [http://bit.ly/3rPCn http://bit.ly/ggeOqP] she is once again WRONG. The difference is that she does not have Charlie “I support progressive rail” Crist to support her any more (just progressive Mica).

    The organization that Charlie Crist put in place to subvert state legislature and funnel Federal Unionized entitlement funds, as SEIU/Castro is trying to do, is TBARTA.

    The pitiful garbage she tried to pull is below. Sorry for length.

    Regarding the Tampa Bay On Line Op-Ed today:
    The Federal Dollars cannot be directly handed off to a private entity, and any private entity who won bid from some government jurisdiction to receive the federal dollars would never have ultimate financial responsibility.
    If the attempt is to circumvent the state and hand off the dollars to local jurisdictions, some type of legislative action to accept the funds AND THE LIABILITY would have to occur.
    Whatever jurisdiction accepts the federal dollars with the strings attached will have ultimate liability.
    It appears the dollars cannot be handed off to MPO’s or to TBARTA as neither of those look possible (why doesn’t the Trib know this since it appears the paper across the bridge knows: http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/plans-floated-to-keep-floridas-high-speed-rail-money/1152581

    Ray Chiaramonte, executive director of the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization, noted that federal guidelines are specific about what entities can accept the money. And it doesn’t appear planning agencies such as his fit the bill, he said, based on his lay reading.

    Ronnie Duncan, chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, said his agency also is not listed as an eligible recipient of federal grant dollars. He noted that the seven-county planning board is just three years old and doesn’t have the staffing for such a large undertaking.

    “I think we have to be intellectually honest,” Duncan said. “Unless it really is credible, I’m not sure we would want to go down that road.”

    Meanwhile, U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, shared a legal opinion from Tampa City Attorney Chip Fletcher. It contends that there are a variety of ways local governments could team up to create an umbrella government to accept grant money and oversee the rail project. And Fletcher’s opinion states that either the Florida Department of Transportation or the Legislature could assign the federal grant money over to the newly created agency.

    It’s time to inform the Tampa Tribune:
    The FDOT reports to the Governor: http://www.dot.state.fl.us/personnel/OfficeOrg.shtm
    State Senate President Haridopolus and State House Speaker Cannon support Governor Scott’s position to reject HSR:
    http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-02-18/news/os-high-speed-haridopolos-20110218_1_high-speed-train-rick-scott-tri-rail-commuter-train
    The way for Government to get out of the way of creating jobs and restoring economic growth is:
    FREE MARKETS, FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT …NOT WASTEFUL PROGRESSIVE UNIONIZED MASSIVELY SUBSIDIZED RAIL

  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    Orlando Sentinel, Central Florida Political Pulse, 2/26/11, “High speed lawsuit coming as soon as Monday?” “The high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa got an unexpected one-week reprieve Friday, just hours after Gov. Rick Scott again rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for the project.

    The sudden shift may have been triggered by a possible lawsuit against Scott contending he has overstepped his authority by killing the train. The suit, which could be filed as soon as Monday, is expected to argue that a law passed by the Legislature during a special session in 2009 compels Scott to pursue the train.

    Two sources close to the situation said the suit likely would be filed with the state Supreme Court in Tallahassee. It was unclear who would sign on to it.

    U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., first approached U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about an extension Thursday. An aide to Nelson said the senator was acting on behalf of ?a member of the Legislature who is part of a group that is considering suing the governor.?

    In Washington, LaHood said in a statement Friday that he had ?decided to give Gov. Scott additional time to review the agreement crafted by local officials from Orlando, Tampa, Lakeland and Miami, and to consult with his staff at the state Department of Transportation.?”….

  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    St. Pete Times article says Fla. Gov. Rick Scott must be on phone with Ray LaHood at 9AM Friday (today( with up or down. The article mentions “an environmental group” helped collect 3000 signatures. I wonder which one. If high speed rail happened in Fla. it should be north-south, like Jacksonville to Miami, with stop in Orlando. Tampa and Orlando are small non-descript towns in the middle of the state. Still could go back to legislature, but votes have been falling away in Rick Scott’s favor.

  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    “Rail fight reaches end of the line,” Tampa Tribune. Citizen groups mentioned in article include No Tax for Tracks and local Tea Party. As it happens, Tampa/Hillsborough county people were fresh off a Nov. 2010 ballot measure that would have increased sales tax to pay for some local rail projects (it failed).