In a hastily-called news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott rejected the federal money for High Speed Rail between Tampa and Orlando and will return $2.4 billion Florida has already received toward the project. Although the Tampa-Orlando leg of the project was 90 percent financed and would have created 71,000 job-years of direct construction jobs and spin-off employment during the four-year construction period, Scott said, “I believe the risk far outweighs the benefits.”
Scott for months had delayed making a decision on whether or not to move ahead with the High Speed Rail project, which requires an additional $280 million to meet the full project cost of $2.6 billion, saying he was awaiting a feasibility and ridership study due this month. In fact, Scott made his decision without the benefit of these studies he had commissioned.
Meanwhile, supporters of high speed rail were optimistic that a public/private partnership could be brokered in which the private sector would pitch in with the additional funds. Only last month, Scott had said he wanted to sit down with companies and “see which one of them is going to fund this (high speed rail).”
Now with Scott’s decision, thousands of Floridians’ hopes for a job have just been dashed, not to mention the negative impact on growth, incomes and revenues for the state, going forward.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) website, “The peak employment period (High Speed Rail) will likely be between the fall of 2012 and 2014 when close to 10,000 workers are expected to be directly employed in building the system.” FDOT further projects that once operation begins, the system will directly employ approximately 600 people and another 500 indirectly on an on-going basis.
Clearly, not only does Scott fail to take into account the jobs, income and revenues to be generated from high speed rail, but his imagination cannot stretch to envision the potentially new Super Region that can be created by linking the Tampa Bay area to Central Florida and all that goes with it.
“Combined, these two regions have a workforce of 4.2 million and a population of more than 7.2 million, major assets such as two international airports, three deepwater ports, a space port, top tourism resorts, wide range of space, aerospace, bio-medical, manufacturing and finance industries and substantial environmental assets including some of the finest beaches in North America. The SuperRegion also has five major performing arts facilities and a half dozen major sports facilities”, FDOT website notes.
Scott, the “Jobs Governor”, who claims that he wants to create 700,000 for Floridians in 7 years, made a huge mistake today with his misguided decision not to move ahead with the Tampa-Orlando High Speed Rail and Floridians and Florida will be poorer for many years to come.
Scott’s goals of slashing the Florida budget, which includes shrinking government, cutting corporate and property taxes, education and health programs and support for the most vulnerable in society, could only be destructive for the State.
