I was on Rob Lorei’s Florida This Week last Friday and was asked to lead off discussion of Florida’s chances of getting high-speed rail. I was taken by surprise, because I had studied Barack Obama’s stimulus plan extensively, especially its engineering aspects, for a freelance piece I did for the UF Engineering College alumni magazine and didn’t remember any money being set aside for high-speed rail in Florida.

It turns out that even Obama himself mentioned Florida as a possible recipient in a recent speech. But I’m guessing that it’s more of a hope than a reality, and a South Florida Sun-Sentinel story lays out the problems with Florida being competitive for some of $8 billion set aside in stimulus dollars for a Miami-Orlando-Tampa high-speed train:

Working against Florida: Once you get off the train, you might not have another way to get around.

Corridors with links to other means of transit have the best chance to get federal money.

“If you’re going to do high-speed rail, you can’t connect it into a sand lot or an empty field,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

South Florida’s Tri-Rail is the only such connection, but Tri-Rail is on shaky ground. Florida’s odds diminished when the Legislature didn’t approve a new 61.5-mile commuter rail line to run through Orlando. Tri-Rail faces the threat of a possible shutdown in two years after legislators also said no to Tri-Rail’s pleas for more money to cover operating costs.

“We’re up against 27 metro areas [to be served by the competing nine lines]. Only three do not have fixed transit systems and two are in Florida — Tampa and Orlando,” said Mica, of Winter Park.

Also working against Florida: the lack of even preliminary engineering for such a line and the fact that voters in 2003 specifically turned down such an endeavor. This state high-speed rail project is a bad idea for now, and that comes from somebody who supports rail transit in Tampa Bay and the proposed Orlando SunRail project (at least in concept). And that is the biggest problem with competing for stimulus dollars; it puts the cart before the horse. We need working mass transportation in Florida’s urban areas. To accomplish that, we also need to rezone and re-imagine our urban areas, increasing densities and making mass transit work by having dense nodes of residential-mixed use neighborhoods that don’t exist today in our sprawl model.

It doesn’t help when you have anti-growth management and anti-urban bills course through the Legislature every year, like the SB 360 bill on Charlie Crist’s desk right now.

Oh, one more thing, given the many many years it would take before we got to building a high-speed rail, how is that an appropriate use of dollars to stimulate us in the recession now??

You may recall from this blog earlier in the year that the state was considering, to be quite blunt about it, selling the stretch of I-75 known as Alligator Alley (across the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp) to the highest bidder, who would pay the state upfront and then collect the tolls on it for decades to come. (Technically, it was a long-term lease, but the net effect is the same.)

The plan sucked. And now, one South Florida lawmaker tells the Fort Myers News-Press, it is dead, at least for now:

Alligator Alley will remain in the hands of the state, for now. The Florida Department of Transportation received no bids to lease the 78-mile section of Interstate 75 by Monday’s deadline.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, said he hopes the state’s efforts to lease the alley are over.

“This idea was ill-conceived from the very beginning. It was sped through the process with minimal public input, and it deserves to be dead and buried forever,” said Aronberg, whose bill to bar foreign companies from leasing state roads did not pass during session.

“It was a bad deal for taxpayers, a bad deal for the state of Florida and would have set a dangerous precedent.”

Here’s the bad news:

The state spent nearly $3 million on consultants and lawyers to cook up this cockamamie public road leasing plan. And as of July 1, thanks to a law just passed, local governments can do the same thing, privatizing toll roads throughout Florida.

The controversial Orlando light rail plan, known as SunRail or the CSX deal to opponents, just won’t die. Today’s Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the city’s mayor, Buddy Dyer, is vowing that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to trying to figure out how to resurrect the twice-killed plan.

The leading idea?

Find another way to get liability protection for CSX, which would sell 61.5 miles of track to for passenger transit. That could allow backers to bypass the Florida Senate.

The Sentinel reports:

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R- Winter Park, said there are “different places to get liability, to get support,” but he would not elaborate. Mica and U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, have promised to deliver? $308 million in federal funding for SunRail, if an insurance deal is reached.

“This is important to the community,” [supporter Sen. Lee] Constantine said. “Yes, it lost in the Senate. But there’s always different ways to skin a cat.”

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Today is the 52nd day of the 2009 Legislative session.

The House and Senate are meeting in Session today to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Bills heard “on the Floor” are on first placed on a “Special Order Calendar” where they are read (for the second time), debated, and amended. Bills taken up on Special Order move to “3rd reading.” The Florida Constitution requires bills to be read three times before a chamber can pass the bill.

Here are the highlights from their Calendars:

Florida House of Representatives

The House will meet in session to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Some of the bills to be heard today are:

Third Reading:

• House Joint Resolution 1013 by Rep. Adam Hasner — the “Save Our Secret Ballot” amendment — This bill proposes to amend the Florida Constitution to provide that any voting for, among other things, “designations or authorizations of employee representation, the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot shall be guaranteed.” The same language is being proposed in state legislatures across the country. [This bill will not be debated until Monday.]
• House Bill 1295 by Rep. Rich Glorioso — The bill would repeal the requirement that a portion of appropriations for new state buildings are used for art.
• House Bill 7099, a committee bill by the Insurance, Business & Financial Affairs Policy Committee — The bill implements federal requirements that all states have a system of licensure meeting national definitions and minimum standards for mortgage loan originators. These federal standards include greater accountability and regulation of loan originators and enhance consumer protections. The bill establishes regulatory requirements for individuals, rather than businesses, licensed or registered as mortgage brokers and lenders, collectively known as loan originators. The bill also fulfills the requirement that states participate in a national licensing registry.
• House Bill 443 by Rep. Rachel Burgin — The bill transfers the Johhnie B. Byrd, Sr., Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute from an independent center to the University of South Florida.
• House Bill 1055 by Rep. Jennifer Carroll — The bill provides that when the private corporation contracts with DOT to design, build, operate, own, or finance a transportation facility, the transportation facility will be treated, for ad valorem tax purposes as a government entity. The transportation facility will also be exempt from intangible tax and special assessments. While corporation will be exempt from documentary stamp tax on all documents or obligations to pay money that arise of the agreement with DOT, it will still have to pay corporate income tax, unemployment compensation taxes, and sales tax.
• House Bill 167 by Rep. Joseph Abruzzo — The bill creates a sales tax holiday for specific energy efficient appliances. From July 20-28, sales tax will not be collected on the first $1,500 of the selling price of a new energy-efficient product purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.
• House Joint Resolution 7057, a committee bill by Military & Local Affairs Policy Committee — This bill proposes an amendment to reduce the limit on annual increases on in assessments of nonhomestead property from a 10 percent increase per year to 5 percent. (The 10 percent cap was introduced by Amendment 1 in 2008.)
• House Bill 483 by Rep. Tom Grady — The bill would let the Office of Statewide Prosecutor go after those who allegedly violate the Florida Money Laundering Act and the Florida Securities and Investor Protection Act.
• House Bill 1205 by Rep. Oscar Branyon — The bill expands the “Charter County Transit System Surtax” to all 20 of Florida’s charter counties and renames it to the “Charter County Transportation System Surtax. This would allow the board of county commissioners of any charter county to propose a referendum asking the voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation and transit projects. Hillsborough County was previously included in the surtax but the Hillsborough County BOCC has not taken advantage of this option.

Special Order Calendar:

• House Bill 439 by Rep. Ron Reagan — The bill sets statewide standards for the use of cameras at intersections to capture license plates of those who run red lights. Currently, a number of local governments have approved the cameras, but with varying standards.
• House Joint Resolution 81 by Rep. Alan Hayes — The bill proposes an amendment to the Florida Constitution to repeal Florida’s public campaign finance laws. The law gives some statewide candidates matching dollars if they agree to overall spending limits. State expenditures for the past four statewide election cycles have been: in excess of $11 million for 2006; $5.2 million for 2002; $915,000 for 2000; and $4.6 million for 1998.
• House Bill 425 by Rep. Scott Plakon — The bill makes a number of changes in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, including:
  • Specifying that the Florida State Boxing Commission must approve the sanctioning organization for amateur mixed martial arts events, and
  • Establishing procedures that give a restaurant owner the discretion, with local approval by ordinance, to allow patrons to bring their dogs onto outside patio eating areas
• House Bill 7149 a committee bill by the Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council — This bill makes
  • A substantial revision of requirements for third-party voter registration organizations.
  • Provisions related to paid petition circulators, including restrictions and required registration, as well as provisions relating to invalidation of petitions not collected in compliance with the act and relating to offering voters an opportunity to sign a replacement petition.
  • Creation of resignation requirements for any officer who qualifies for federal public office (undoing changes made in 2008).
  • Prohibiting any person, political committee, committee of continuous existence, or other group or organization from soliciting any voter who is in line to vote at any polling place or early voting site.

  This bill is very controversial — as of post time, almost 100 amendments have been filed to make changes to the bill language, the vast majority by Democrats.

• House Bill 1375 by Rep. Jim Frishe — This bill requires a municipality who wishes to annex part of Tierra Verde to annex the entire island, subject to a referendum. Late last year, St. Petersburg annexed 28.32 acres of commercial property on the northern tip of the Tierra Verde. This bill would prevent such actions without taking the whole island.
• House Bill 485 by Rep. Will Weatherford — The New Markets Development Program will encourage capital investment in low-income communities in rural and urban areas by allowing state taxpayers to earn credits applicable against specified state taxes by investing in community development entities that make qualified low-income community investments in qualified active 64 low-income community businesses that create jobs.
• House Bill 611 by Rep. Dorothy Hukill — This bill would require local governments who want to repair public buildings (or other public works) to use outside labor, or prove that county/city employees are cheaper than the lowest bid. (Simple maintenance is excluded).
• House Bill 7099, a committee bill by the Finance & Tax Council — This bill repeals a number of sales tax exemptions, as well as creating a three-day “Back-to-School” sales tax holiday on clothing and school supplies and a three-day hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday. The revenue lost from the sales tax holidays is offset by the revenue collected from the repeal of exemptions.
• House Joint Resolution 385 by Rep. David Rivera — This bill would limit the total aggregate ad valorem taxes levied by counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts on any parcel of real property to 1.35 percent of the highest taxable value of the property.
• House Bill 7091, a committee bill by the Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council (EDCA) — The bill creates a mechanism to coordinate a statewide effort to promote the efficient and effective deployment of broadband Internet service throughout Florida.

Florida Senate

The Senate will meet in session to consider passage of bills that have completed the committee process. Some of the bills to be heard today are:

Third Reading:

• Senate Bill 762 by Sen. Ken Pruitt — The bill will permit all eleven state university to utilize differential tuition, which allows the individual universities to exceed the tuition set by the Legislature by no more than 15 percent. The extra tuition dollars must enhance undergraduate education and provide additional need-based financial aid. It also limits the total tuition and fees after differential to the national average of public universities. Some students will not have to pay this additional tuition, including students on pre-paid programs or who were enrolled prior to July 1, 2007.
• Senate Bill 2682 by Sen. Ken Pruitt — The bill implements some of the recommendations of the Florida College System Task Force and the State College Pilot Project. The biggest change requires Community College graduates to get priority over out-of-state applicants for transfer into Florida’s state universities. (Community Colleges can also change their name to “State College” if they are accredited for granting baccalaureate degrees.)

Special Order Calendar:

• Senate Bill 582 by Sen. Carey Baker — This bill creates the Florida Transportation Revenue Study Commission to examine transportation needs and develop funding recommendations.
• Senate Bill 216 by Sen. Charlie Justice — The bill would prevent local governments from spending tax dollars on issues before the voters — even for so called “voter education” measures — unless they are purely factual in nature.
• Senate Bill 1978 by Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla — The bill requires school districts to spend at least 70% of a school’s budget on classroom instruction.
• Senate Bill 2058 by Sen. J.D. Alexander — The bill expands the “Charter County Transit System Surtax” to all 20 of Florida’s charter counties and renames it to the “Charter County Transportation System Surtax. This would allow the board of county commissioners of any charter county to propose a referendum asking the voters to approve a half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation and transit projects. Hillsborough County was previously included in the surtax but the Hillsborough County BOCC has not taken advantage of this option.

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The White House today is touting new estimates on job creation from the stimulas bill by the end of 2010. That’s $28 billion worth of asphalt-layin’, engineerin’, project managin’, right-of-way buyin’ work.

Florida gets $1.3 billion of that, with $52 million of the state’s share going to the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, the second-biggest allocation after Miami.

The administration’s press release from today is after the jump.

FACT SHEET: Highway Spending from Recovery Act Expected to Create or Save 150,000 Jobs by End of 2010

• Many of these jobs will pay well above the national average.

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. Some of these jobs will come from direct spending by the Federal government to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, schools, and other parts of our national infrastructure.

One such investment calls for spending $28 billion on highway construction. This money will be allocated to states across the nation, helping to partly offset the job losses that have occurred throughout the country.

Using the same economic model that predicted the overall job growth, we find that this particular investment will lead to 150,000 jobs saved or created by the end of 2010.

It is also worth noting that jobs in highway construction tend to pay better than average. The typical, or median hourly wage for all jobs in the economy was $15.10 in 2007 according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But for workers in the highway industry, the typical hourly wage was $18.31, a premium of over $3 per hour over the economy-wide median wage.

Looking more closely at different types of jobs within the industry helps to explain the difference. The median wage of blue collar, or production workers—folks who do jobs like welding and mixing—comes to about $16 per hour in highway construction compared to about $13.50 in the overall economy.

There are two sources by which these jobs come about. First, there is the direct impact of building new roads and fixing old ones, leading to employment for persons who, in the absence of this investment, would be out of work. This effect is responsible for just under two-thirds of the jobs, about 95,000.

The second effect is an indirect one. It refers to the economic activity generated when these new workers spend more than they would have otherwise. For example, someone who gets a job fixing a road through the Recovery Act might buy more groceries or more apparel, and this leads to more activity by grocers and retailers. This effect explains about 55,000 of these jobs.

Finally, note that we say these 150,000 jobs would be “saved or created.” In some cases, current employees on highway crews or in other sectors where these workers spend money will avoid layoffs due to these investments. Had the Recovery Act not passed, they would have become unemployed. Other jobs will be newly created providing a new job slot that did not exist before.

A state-specific overview of the estimated infrastructure investments will be available on Recovery.govlater today.

Once that money is split up between 11 regions in the U.S., it won’t go very far to create bullet-train high-speed rail that progressives envision.

The Ledger reports:

That money will not be enough to pay for a single bullet train, transportation experts say. And by the time the $8 billion gets divided among the 11 regions across the country that the government has designated as high-speed rail corridors, they say, it is unlikely to do much beyond paying for long-delayed improvements to passenger lines, and making a modest investment in California’s plan for a true bullet train.

In the short term, the money – inserted at the 11th hour by the White House – could put people to work improving tracks, crossings and signal systems.

That could help more trains reach speeds of 90 to 110 miles per hour, which is much faster than they currently go. It is much slower, however, than high-speed trains elsewhere, like the 180 mph of the newest Japanese bullet train. (The Acela trains on the East Coast are capable of 150 mph, but average about half that.)

That includes the I-4 corridor, which is envisioned for a high-speed system shuttling folks between Orlando’s theme parks and Pinellas’ beaches.

Commuter rail helps create jobs

America is in a recession, and Floridians have not been spared. Florida’s unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, higher than the national rate of 7.2 percent. It seems as if every day, newspapers throughout the state report layoffs by Florida companies. Last year, Florida lost 255,000 jobs.

Times are tough, and the full attention of our elected leaders should be given to economic recovery, transition and job growth. While Florida is faced with the same economic challenges as the rest of the nation, we are fortunate to have a governor who understands the need to invest in long-term transportation solutions even in these tough times.

Last year, Gov. Charlie Crist announced his Accelerate Florida program to advance investment in infrastructure projects that will create jobs and encourage economic growth. The wisdom of the governor’s initiative is evidenced by the strong return on investment generated by infrastructure projects. For example, for every dollar invested in transportation projects, $5.60 in economic benefit is gained. That is a smart investment.

In addition to backing the Accelerate Florida initiative, the Florida Chamber of Commerce joined Gov. Crist in his call for national leaders to invest in our state’s more than $7 billion in shovel-ready transportation projects that can be started in less than four months, delivering a quick return on investment.

Along with those important projects, our state has even more work to do to prepare our transit infrastructure before we add another 7 million residents by the year 2030. Florida must continue to diversify and expand its mix of transit solutions to move goods and people.

One significant transit solution Florida should build upon is the expansion of commuter rail. While commuter rail systems are being planned in several regions, the Central Florida region’s proposed SunRail system provides the most immediate opportunity for construction activity that could leverage federal funding and quickly create thousands of jobs.

Not only will this project have an economic benefit for the whole state—by directly reinvesting private money in roadways, railroads and other transportation facilities throughout Florida–but it will also lay the foundation for passenger rail systems in other Florida regions desperate for multi-modal transportation solutions, including the Tampa Bay area.

Expanding commuter rail in Florida is a great opportunity to leverage federal funding, create thousands of jobs and gain economic benefits that accompany transportation improvements. Actions by this coming legislative session by the Florida Legislature and by Gov. Crist will enable the SunRail project to serve as a much-needed stimulus to our state’s economy. Florida needs long-term thinking and short-term action. The time to act on commuter rail is now.

This new CSX deal is so ugly it would make a freight train take a dirt road. It would cost taxpayers $1.2 billion, but according to this recent Orlando Sentinel article, that number could go up. According to a recent news release from Senator Paula Dockery, an opponent of the deal, the number is actually at $2.66 BILLION! She had the Florida Department of Transportation do a detailed cost estimate and this is what it produced.

Wasn’t this rotten deal only a paltry $649 million last year? I guess train track prices don’t go down in a recession, and neither did the number of disturbing details about this deal. Still present are the liability issues sticking taxpayers with the bill for negligence, the location issue (that send freight trains through downtown Lakeland) and, of course, there is that little matter of the cost. Not to mention the backroom way in which this scheme was originally cooked up. Taxpayers are getting totally railroaded. Some research finds that CSX is not a stranger to screwing Florida taxpayers; check out this article.

Recall last year’s deal was derailed at the last minute almost single-handedly due to the efforts of Senator Dockery, R from Lakeland. It isn’t that Ms. Dockery is against rail, in fact her track record shows quite the opposite. Ms. Dockery is one of the few politicians standing up against the misuse of taxpayer dollars and the very shady details of this potential purchase. Thank You Senator Dockery! Any chance we can talk you into moving to Hillsborough?

This website outlines the opposition’s arguments as well as most of the players (at least the official players). The website points out that it will only take 3,600 cars off 1-4 while adding 1,500 trucks. 3,600 cars for $2.66 billion……. you do the math. I was surprised to learn that the website is produced by former editorial page editor of the Tampa Tribune, Rosemary Goudreau.

The people’s Guvnah is supporting this deal (I am so shocked) this year. Is that a red light I see outside his office? Sadly our own local Representative Rich Glorioso, sadly, just voted to sell out Plant City. Pay close attention to the elected officials that support such a scheme and that should speak volumes. Some of the biggest proponents of the deal in its current form are: State Sen. J. D. Alexander, who has some seemingly glaring conflicts of interest and U.S. Rep John Mica,

Our stellar lawmakers shouldn’t even consider such a bad deal but I would bet they are counting on your apathy not to notice. If you have ever spent on day in Tallahassee watching them work then you would know that what goes on in the sunshine is almost as bad as what goes on behind closed doors because nobody is there to oversee them.

What can you do? You can contact Governor Charlie ‘ I heart Obama‘ Crist (-R or is it D? or is it just up for grabs to the highest bidder?) here. You can contact your local lawmakers here. Send a thank you note to Senator Dockery here as she appears to be the only one looking out for taxpayers who are lined up to be flattened by this train.

Update: Another article came out in the Orlando Sentinel, and this one line might just expose with why lawmakers seem so giddy about such a rotten deal. “More than 18 billion dollars worth of development could also occur within a half mile radius of the stations by 2028.” They also have a poll to see what you think.  You can take that poll here.

And that is exactly what Alan Snel, a cycling advocate and blogger, have put before the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

From this morning’s St. Petersburg Times:

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority Board will hear a staff report this afternoon on the feasibility of closing the upper tier of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway to cars on Sundays so bicyclists can use it.

The proposal, brought up by a coalition of Tampa Bay area bicycle stores and bicyclists at last month’s board meeting, asked officials to look into the idea of closing the elevated lanes on one or a few Sundays a month for two to three hours in the morning. The closure would allow bikers to ride the upper deck, typically used for commutes in heavy traffic during the week.

“Hopefully, they (board members) will understand the minimal impact this would have on tolls,” said Alan Snel, director of the bike coalition. “Our area lost the Friendship Trail Bridge and we are very tentative about using roads. I think bicyclists would really embrace this.”

The authority board will hear the bikeway staff report at 3 p.m. at its 1104 Twiggs St. offices in downtown Tampa.