Rick Scott Rejects Obama Administration's Last-Ditch Pitch On High-Speed Rail

WASHINGTON -- Putting a formal end to attempts to satisfy his concerns with the project, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has rejected a last-ditch effort by the Department of Transportation to build a portion of a national high-speed rail system in his state.

Scott had what an official described as a "not long" phone conversation with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Friday morning, informing LaHood that he would continue to refuse $2.4 billion in federal funds for the project. The money will likely now be available to other states.

LaHood met with Scott earlier this week while he was in Washington for a conference of governors, attempting to satisfy Scott's concerns with the project following his rejection of it the previous week. At that time, Scott had insisted that overruns could end up costing his state more than $3 billion.

That meeting set the end of the week as the deadline for Scott's final answer to LaHood. Scott relayed during a 9 a.m. call Friday that he was not budging.

"[The Governor] spoke with US DOT Secretary LaHood this morning and informed him that Florida will focus on other infrastructure projects and will not move forward with any federal high speed rail plan," Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said.

The move puts Scott at odds with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in his own state, including several who launched a longshot lawsuit against the governor in an attempt to secure the money without his approval. That suit was dismissed on Friday morning.

Shutting down the project may also put Florida at a severe disadvantage against other states who now stand to benefit from Scott's refusal of the rail funds.

A senior official with the Department of Transportation told The Huffington Post that DOT "now plans to evaluate our options for making this $2.4 billion available to states eager to develop high-speed rail corridors, where the business case is strong, in regions across the United States."

New York, California, and several other states have already petitioned LaHood's office for Florida's funds.

"The Obama Administration's bold high-speed rail plan will not only create jobs and reinvigorate our manufacturing sector in the near term, it is a crucial and strategic investment in America's future prosperity," LaHood said in a statement. "I know that states across America are enthusiastic about receiving additional support to help bring America's high-speed rail network to life and deliver all its economic benefits to their citizens."

Comments

[glenn113]

12:21 AM on 03/21/2011

Geeze I wonder why. Read this article:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-forum-scott-reason-foundation-20110319,0,663494.story

[Bienville]

10:29 AM on 03/10/2011

Rick Scott made the wrong call on this. His own state's ridership study says a $10M profit would occur in first year of operation. How can this self-styled "jobs" governor allow thousands of jobs to leave his state?

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-03-09/business/os-ridership-high-speed-20110309_1_ridership-study-high-speed-train-train-systems

[Kenz300]

03:17 PM on 03/09/2011

Trains need to be part of our nations overall transportation infrastructure.

As oil prices continue to rise we will need options for travel.

From bicycles, to cars, trolleys, trains, busses, pedicabs, and airplanes we need a variety
of options for travel in America.

[grover5995]

12:38 PM on 03/09/2011

The new teagagger guv killed this project before any private companies could even bid on it. There were Korean and Japanese investors ready to assume the state portion of project costs. In addition, an existing local government agency was not allowed to participate. Seems like the new guv is afraid of a real-world test of his blind opposition to high-speed rail!

[Independent66]

01:58 PM on 03/08/2011

Back to the future. Windmills and trains in the 21st century! Ha ha. There is no objective way you can justify the spending of tax payer money on trains and windmills. Since this is tax dollars sent to Washington by Florida tax payers, the Feds should just return the money to Florida and let the tax payers spend it their way! I resent the Feds first tax us, then use that money to bribe the State to do their bidding. Oh, I forgot, the Feds assess a transfer charge on the money so it is significantly less that the actual tax dollars. Our Federal Government thinks we are stupid and can't manage our own money! Well I have a message for them, Americans are not stupid. We have heard the lies so long, that no one listens any more. But, continue to do stupid stuff with our money and you will join the unemployed in 2012. So help me God!

[RobD407]

11:52 PM on 03/06/2011

I live near Orlando, I use about four gallons of gas and about 90 minutes to drive to Tampa, to the motel by the beach. Then we usually walk or bicycle, unless we want to go to a restaurant farther away. At $5 per gallon of gas, it would cost $20 each way. How much will I save to get a faster ride and give up the convenienvce of my car in Tampa? Will it cost more to carry the bicycles? Will I need to to pay for a taxi or will there be free shuttle service to the motels in Tampa? I'd use high speed rail service between Orlando and Miami, but not Tampa. How about a high speed interstate rail system? I could go with rail from Orlando to North Carolina, maybe something that follows I-95 up the coast.

[mrm3]

10:56 PM on 03/06/2011

Thank Yahweh I'm 24 years old and have actually traveled by train and can actually grasp the science of train travel and am intelligent enough to understand the concept of INVESTING.

Give it 10 years, and all of these haters will be too feeble to fight against the future. The world will be a much better place, we just need to wait a generation.

[charles77]

03:01 PM on 03/06/2011

People need to pause and really think about this. OK, this governor in Florida is GOP. Let’s put that aside for a minute. California is DEM, probably one of the most DEM or “Blue” states

California is having second thoughts on this too. There is growing evidence that voters were not told the truth about costs when they approved their rail project. Much of this criticism is coming from inside of California’s state government.

From LA TIMES, a brief story on the CA government auditor’s report on costs.
“California high-speed rail plan troubled, official warns”
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/30/local/la-me-0430-high-speed-rail-20100430

Here is the actual California state government’s auditors report, it’s a factual report on the fact that CA voters are not being told the truth about the real costs, but it is a slow read:
http://bsa.ca.gov/reports/summary/2009-106

“The state's high-speed rail authority told voters a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Los Angeles would cost $55—about the price of a Southwest flight. Studies by economists and financial consultants Alain Enthoven, William Grindley and William Warren have since debunked the rail authority's claims. The price tag likely will fall between $62 billion and $213 billion, 2-3 times what California voters were told. A one-way ticket from San Francisco to Los Angeles will cost about $190, which means more people will choose to fly”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858404576134144193260526.html

[Big Game Hunter]

03:32 AM on 03/06/2011

Good. Let California and other civilized lands have that rail money instead. Have fun watching your gator wrestling match and Nascar.

[ThomasPaine1776]

03:20 AM on 03/06/2011

This guy STEALS, through LYING and CHEATING....OLD people and the Government.......to the tune of over 600 MILLION dollars, and he somehow is NOT in jail.

Dude, if I stole 600 dollars, i would go to Jail. This guy steal 600 MILLION, from the GOVERNMENT no less, and the government, who you would be ticked off about this, allows him to remain free to lie, cheat and steal his way into the governmers mansion. INSANE.

[Sean777]

12:41 AM on 03/06/2011

Nosferatu only wants to sabotage the Obama administra­tion to please the GOP agenda of keeping unemployme­nt high for the 2012 elections, Rick Scott is looking for GOP “political­” gain over Americans' best interests plain and simple.

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=pr4lfgrAg­EM&feature­=related
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=PEh4Q_0yx­uI&feature­=related

[charles77]

01:48 PM on 03/06/2011

Thank you for your kind words in a comment below. I hope you will go down and read my response.

For some reason these links don't work.

[charles77]

04:00 PM on 03/06/2011

I have read your Berkeley report. It does not seem as “pro High Speed Rail” as you said.

“Investment in California’s proposed High-Speed Rail (HSR) system has been justified partly on economic grounds, as a potential stimulus to employment and income growth. However, international experiences raise questions about the net economic development impacts of these costly mega-investments.”

“Empirical findings on corridor-level job distributions, cross-industrial typologies, and station-level density gradients suggest that the new HSR project is likely to induce knowledge- and service-based business agglomeration benefits, though these are mostly limited to large, globally connected cities. Growth can also shift to HSR-served edge cities, airports, and leisure-entertainment hubs. Such shifts, however, could be at the expense of small intermediate cities.”

And these “small intermediate cities” will lobby, and probably get, train stops. Each additional stop greatly adds to travel time. It takes time to slow a 200 MPH train to a stop, board passengers, and get it back up to speed.

While they did conclude it could have net economic benefits, much of their analysis relies on comparisons to very densely populated areas like Japan. And it uses a 45 billion dollar cost, which have been debunk by many sources inside and outside the California state government, they do not say these economic benefits would be grater than the costs.

http://www.its.berkeley.edu/volvocenter/Cervero/California_High_Speed_Rail_and_Economic_Development_Paper_-murakami_cervero2.pdf

[MinerSam]

09:50 PM on 03/05/2011

THe Republican liars and thieves determined to destroy our country no ifs and buts about it.

[RuleofLawNow]

06:25 PM on 03/05/2011

Gov. Scott was elected by Floridians to take a stand against progressive policies that would encourage infrastructure developments, tolerance, or anything else thought up by a Democrat. Floridians will live to regret their choice. It is bizarre that the media let this guy off after he milked our Wild West healthcare system in the worst sort of way...

[SDH283]

06:42 PM on 03/05/2011

The State of Florida has never struck me as being overly interested in the future. Seriously, they think of themselves as a 'retirement destination' and a 'tourist destination' ... that isn't conducive to planning for the future, or innovation.

Add to that the fact that the GOP is dedicated to only one thing: OBAMA'S FAILURE, by any means necessary. They don't care about what is good for the country at all.

[cactusblossom]

09:15 PM on 03/05/2011

Very well put.

[MinerSam]

09:53 PM on 03/05/2011

Since probably million of people from New York alone tend to vacation in Florida
this project would eventually pay for itself I would think,

But the Gas & Oil Party will do anything to prevent the reduction of the use of their black gold.

[lbcdem95]

04:11 PM on 03/05/2011

The United States used to be far ahead of any other industrial nations, but thank to people like Rick Scott we are so far behind we may never be able to catch up. I do not understand why a state with such high unemployment would turn down the funds to create jobs. Soon the top 1/2% will have all the money in the country and the 13th and 14th amendment will be abolished and well be back in the 19th century.

[VikingQuest]

05:12 PM on 03/05/2011

I really don't understand how a train between Tampa and Orlando puts the US behind at all . . .

Maybe you can break down the importance of a Tampa to Orlando train to the other industrial nations.

[Sundiszno]

07:59 PM on 03/05/2011

Miles of High Speed Rails in China (today): 11,000 (avg. speed of 120 mph or higher in reality)

Miles of High Speed Rails in U.S. (today): 400 (but the average speed is 68 mph, so one could say the miles of HRS in the U.S. is exactly zero)

Tampa-Orlando was picked b/c it would have probably been the fastest one to be built present since most of the route is already owned by the government and does not impact any existing line(s). In essence it would have been a pilot project. Rejecting this project does probably put U.S. back at least 2-3 years.

I am still a toss-up as to whether this would have actually helped locally. But from a nation's perspective, it would have been worth the cost.

[SDH283]

06:44 PM on 03/05/2011

You're so right.

While the rest of the World is plunging headlong into the 21st Century, the USA is clinging to the idea that it should look back toward the Norman Rockwell model of 'perfection'