<font color="#0033CC">GUEST COLUMN:</font> Rail deal was a boondoggle from day one

By State Rep. Debbie Boyd (D-Newberry)

According to recent news reports, Tea Party activists are angry over the recent Sunrail/Tri-rail deal just passed by the Florida Legislature.

And they have every right to be.

The Governor is prepared to sign a new law that will not only create a brand new bureaucracy, but will allow that new bureaucracy to buy 61 miles of an existing rail corridor and pay fifteen times the national rate in the process.

No, that is not a typo. The state will be buying a private rail line for $10 million per mile. According at least one Senator involved in this issue, the national average for such purchases is around $700,000 per mile. It is also not a typo that during these tough economic times, we created a new government bureaucracy that will operate without legislative oversight. This bureaucracy will be allowed to negotiate this and other (presumably) bad deals. (I offered an amendment to ensure that this new bureaucracy was answerable to the legislature, but oddly leadership struck that down.)

Why would anyone agree to such a bad idea?

Florida lawmakers were told that passing this bill would create jobs and it help ensure we get billions in federal dollars for future projects.

When I heard this news about jobs, I was honestly encouraged. Our state needs good jobs and Floridians need work more than they need another social welfare program. Unfortunately, when I read the bill, I learned that the rhetoric about jobs simply did not match the reality. In fact, this bill does nothing to guarantee that Florida's citizens will be hired for any of the jobs. To make this point even clearer, I supported an amendment to ensure job preference for real Floridians - it too was struck down. In the end, it appeared to me that it was highly likely that not a single citizen living in North Florida was likely to get a job from this deal. I for one am not about to support a measure that will allow foreign corporations the ability to import workers to our state and displace citizens who live here and pay taxes here.

And speaking of taxes, the idea that we should do this because bureaucrats in Washington D.C. may (and I mean MAY...because there were no guarantees) give us more money later on just felt wrong. Why should we once again be on bended knee to Washington? Why are some lawmakers suddenly supportive of running up the national debt (we are, after all Americans who have to pay back that debt) because someone told us it is a good deal?

Where did our state's leadership take a wrong turn? This is supposed to be a time of tightening our belts, cutting the budget and putting Florida citizens back to work. Instead, House and Senate leadership and now our Governor are prepared to buy into this boondoggle, costing Florida taxpayers billions while becoming a willing participant in running up the federal debt. They are creating a new government bureaucracy that will be allowed to spend taxpayer dollars with no legislative oversight and yet, there were high fives all over the Capitol.

Yes, Tea Party and other conservative activists have very good reasons to be angry and frustrated over those high fives. I applaud their anger and share their frustration.

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