CSX deal appears dead
April 30, 2008 at 9:23 pm by Wayne GarciaFrom the Orlando Sentinel:
Senate leaders announced late Wednesday they were stripping a transportation bill of the legal protections CSX Corp. says it needs to pave the way for Central Florida’s commuter rail deal.
Claiming the huge bill loaded with projects for other regions like South Florida was being weighted down by the controversial rail deal, Senate Transportation Chairman Carey ["Truck Nutz"] Baker, R-Eustis, said he would gut the CSX legal protections and framwork for the deal to buy the 61-mile line.
Pro-deal forces like the Central Florida Partnership had lobbied hard for the deal, including commissioning a poll that showed positive public sentiment for the generic concepts of more rail and more freight as green endeavors. In sheer anger at not getting his way, Polk Sen. J.D. “Related to Katherine Harris so you know he carries at least the recessive gene for nuttiness” Alexander, who has financial interests in opening up the heartland of Florida to more development, lashed out at his colleagues:
In retaliation, Sen. J.D. Alexander of Winter Haven had filed an amendment to strike the $45 million state subsidy Tallahassee sends to the Tri-Rail system in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties — complaining that lawmakers who were fighting central Florida’s rail project were benefiting from the same legal protections in their region.
“At the end of the day I hope we build commuter rail first in Orlando,” he said. “Whatever our policy is, it should be the policy for the entire state. We shouldn’t have a South Florida policy and a Central Florida policy.”
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