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Published: February 22, 2011
Despite negligible support from Gov. Rick Scott, elected officials in Tampa, Lakeland and Orlando are right to race ahead with plans to create a regional agency to accept $2.4 billion in federal money to link the cities with high-speed rail, at no cost to the state.
Scott is skeptical that it's possible to shield Florida taxpayers from all financial risk. But if federal transportation officials are willing to put that safeguard in writing, a major objection to the project would be satisfied.
We believe that some limited state support for the important project is defensible. Yet Scott's resistance could work to strengthen the national plan for high-speed rail, which is running into taxpayer protests in other states, too.
Much evidence suggests that high-speed rail will greatly benefit the cities it links. What's in it for everyone else is less clear. So the question becomes, why should taxpayers in Pensacola or Naples, just because they're in the same state, be required to subsidize travel between Tampa, Orlando and Miami?
By removing the state from the financial calculus, Florida's solution could help defuse opposition to high-speed rail everywhere, except of course for those who believe only in highways. We would remind them that the federal government has long supported rail transit in the cities that have it, and Florida taxpayers have subsidized those efforts for decades.
It's appropriate for federal tax money, not state taxes, to build a national rail system. One anti-rail governor should not be able to shut down rail in that state and leave a gap in the network. Nor should state taxpayers have to cover any operational losses.
Even if high-speed rail is never built, transportation in the Central Florida corridor cannot continue to depend on one six-lane highway.
Even if state taxpayers are off the hook, Scott may still oppose the project. And it's clear that without at least minimal state cooperation, the project will die.
Nevertheless, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and other local and national leaders are right to push hard to build support for a new Tampa-Lakeland-Orlando agency.
Even if high-speed rail is never built, transportation in the Central Florida corridor cannot continue to depend on one six-lane highway. Other options must be offered, and we have little confidence that Scott will devote much time to thinking about it.
A regional agency would help strengthen the USF-UCF connection and could investigate lower-cost rail, a new toll road or extra lanes reserved for express buses.
The governor is making it clear that he expects Tampa, Lakeland and Orlando to solve their own transportation problems. If they can, it will bode well for the region's economic future.
Originally posted at: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/22/MEOPINO1-tampa-orlando-connection-deserves-a-chanc/news-opinion-editorials/
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