Rick Scott didn't want to spend federal money on a high-speed rail project, but he's happy to use state money for a Port of Miami dredging project. (Photo courtesy of Rick Scott.)
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
The mayors of Lakeland, Orlando, Tampa and Miami all penned a letter on March 3 trying to allay Rick Scott’s concerns about a $2.4 billion high-speed rail line from Orlando to Tampa.
But it was all for naught. Their letter was doomed from the outset because it was built on one massive wrong assumption: that Scott might actually care.
Might care what the leaders of three of the state’s largest cities might think. Might care about voter outrage, logic or facts.
Scott has a small but committed tea party base. A Republican Party super majority in both statehouses that will prevent an impeachment (and possibly even a recall). Good lawyers. And a job. At least for another 46 months.
He doesn’t have to care.
What the well-intended mayors mistook for concerns — Scott’s claims about low ridership, his worries about possible future costs to the state — were simply convenient excuses.
He doesn’t care as long as Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon are willing to play along. And Hardipolos is too busy these days deflecting criticism about omitting half a million dollars from financial disclosure forms. Not to speak of the uber-embarrassing revelation that he was paid $152,000 by Brevard Community College to write a 175-page (double-spaced, no less) book — which was never published. It didn’t help that the fiscal conservative somehow found state money to send the college’s way. Remember that the next time lawmakers talk about the need to raise college tuitions. Which should be pretty soon.
On March 5, Haridopolos’ writing skills made the big-time: The New York Times. But it wasn’t the best-seller list. Columnist Gail Collins skewered Haridopolos for penning such political insights about running for office as: “a cellphone will be essential.”
Ahhh … Florida politics in the national spotlight again — back where we belong.
With problems like those, and a future run against U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, Haridopolos needs as many tea party votes as he can get. Don’t expect him to confront Scott. And Cannon is too busy amassing a war chest for whatever political ambitions lie ahead.
The tea party will be Scott’s to lead around like a puppy on a leash as long as he keeps pushing to gut the state budget — education and families be damned. And as long as he keeps tweaking the nose of President Barack Obama.
Something at which he’s become quite adept.
After his lawyer beat up opposing lawyers before the Florida Supreme Court on March 4, Scott immediately announced he was rejecting the $2.4 billion from the federal government for the rail line. And then promptly flew to Miami to announce that the state, which is having to cut $1.75 billion from K-12 education, will funnel $77 million to the Port of Miami to deepen the port.
In case anybody might have missed what the whole port business was about, Scott made sure to mention: “As Floridians, we know best where our resources should be focused.”
Talk about Obama red meat for the tea partiers. All he needed was a Mike Huckabee-like reference to Kenya.
I won’t even get into a discussion about what kind of Brevard Community College math Scott is using to claim the $77 million will translate into 30,000 dredging jobs when the $2.4 billion cutting-edge rail project was supposed to result in just 24,000 jobs. Or wonder which critical road or bridge project is about to get dumped on.
It would be a waste of words. Because it would be based on the flawed assumption that logic matters …
To someone who doesn’t care.
He bought the State of Florida for $73 million dollars and now he wants to turn it into Florida, Inc. After barely a month in office he is taking actions that will scar this state for decades to come. We need to remind him that he beat his opponent by merely 1% and he garnered less than 50% of the total vote. This does not give him a mandate to take radical and reckless unilateral action.
This page is a non-partisan forum for Floridians to express their political desire to remove this electoral mistake from office. WE THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA HAVE THE SOLE RIGHT TO PUT ELECTED OFFICIALS IN OFFICE THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE OUR RIGHT TO REMOVE THEM FROM OFFICE.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Florida-Governor-Rick-Scott/183133285056947#!/pages/Recall-Florida-Governor-Rick-Scott/183133285056947?sk=info
Rick Scott is the worst thing that has happened to Florida since Hurricane Andrew.
Jobs ? He’s really doing a great job of killing jobs. He should be looking for a new job.
“Let’s get to work”…but where ?
BUILDING HSR IS AN INVESTMENT IN FLORIDA’S FUTURE! BUT LOONIE BIRD SCOOTER HENCHMEN LIKE HAIRYDUBOLIS WILL BE FOUND SAYING HE IS NOT ONE TO FINACE FLORIDA’S FUTURE, BUT HE THEN WILL BE FOUND FOR EDUCATION! IS THERE ONE WHO HAS MORE DICHOTOMOUS ILLOGICAL THINKING THAN THIS GEEK – FLORIDA’S HIGHEST PAID (PUBLISH AND PERISH) COLLEGE EDUCATOR WITH A STATE BANKROLLED SALARY OF $250,000?
SPENDING ON EDUCATION IS LITTLE MORE THAN INVESTING (FINANCING) ON FLORIDUH’S FUTURE!
This accurately points out the flawed BCC math used by Scooter! He is completely delusional over 30,000 permanent Hispanic jobs going “created” by investing a measely $71M in the Port of Miami. In acuality, this investment in the “state’s infrastructure” only keeps this Fla port competitive. It is foolharded to ever think that larger ships carrying more containers, automatically create more containers onloaded and offloaded at a port and hence MORE jobs resulting. It only allows fewer ship arrivals and departures required to move the same number of containers! And where is the FACTUAL study from BCC or even Dade CC that shows the port has lost business because it has not been able to support the largest ships? Or are we to trust one who is delusional and says he represents the taxpayers by having been elected by only 49% of the ballots cast? You know the one, the skin headed pencil necked health “care” provider who wears Cowboy boots “from” a Floriduh town named Naples!
For further reading also see:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/os-mike-thomas-rick-scott-ports-0301120110301,0,5852057.column
And then their is Scooter’s incomprehensible simpleton logic comparing HSR to South Florida’s Tri-Rail (found at http://www.postonpolitics.com/2011/02/tri-rail-poster-child-for-what-could-go-wrong-with-hi-speed-rail-scott-says/). One commenter’s asture comment (with embellishment) being:
“Although the Tri-Rail system is certainly not a model to be upheld [HSR will be everything that Tri-Rail is not!], Scott’s comparison is intellectually dishonest.
“The system operates at a loss, no doubt, but it’s not as if our highway system pays for itself. The gas tax does not come close to covering maintenance and construction costs.
“Tri-Rail has a ridership problem [HSR appears not to have by studies undertaken and by designing a viable route that goes where peeps NEED it to go to use.], but the solution is NOT to pull the plug (it will just mean more cars on our already congested highways and even more delays for those who do drive). Instead, the system needs … [to be integrated into] our communities. The tracks run along an industrial corridor [old 100 yr-old right-of-way] and the stations more often than not are isolated from the residential and commercial areas.
“The problem [for Tri-Rail] is design, not money.”
[And one must logically ask themselves, will Orlando's Sun-Rail "fail" by the same flaws because it goes "designed to fail" by not being integrated into the future designs for HSR? WHICH WILL COME TO PASS...eventually...following the recall of Scooter!]
If Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, and Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach want support for casino resorts all they should have to do is get onboard the high-speed train to “no-where” supported by 20+ other Senators. Although, Jones has been seen onboard with qualification, blonde Sachs apparently missed her taxi and has not been seen at the station!
“Jones said estimates show the casinos could draw 5 million out-of-state visitors, and stop 3.5 million trips by Floridians to go gamble elsewhere — while also attracting big trade shows.”
Actually, backhanded references that HSR is a “train to ‘No-where’” is a “joke” used by its opponents! But really, wouldn’t the placement of “Destination Resorts” along HSR rail give it the sense that THERE IS a destination of riches to be reached by taking HSR? So why not propose that the HSR “corridor” be used by Casino Resorts and that no new ones be placed anywhere else? A portion of revenues from the Destination Resorts casinos could support HSR in Florida!
Given that “estimates show casinos could draw 5 million out-of-state visitors” the $200M per year paid by the Injuns now is a very GOOD DEAL for them…NOT that their Nations have not deserved it for the genocide their ancestors suffered at the hands of the invading white man to the New World! But, my word, this is only $40 per visitor paid into the state coffers! What really does the average gambler put down…$500-$1000 likely? That is a gross of $12.5-25B over five years! Just let the state garnish only 20% of the gross and that’s a mere $2.5-5B into the state’s coffers! 10% of these casino gross revenues going to HSR is $1.25-2.5B providing a potential payback in only five years, once all had been fully implemeneted! And, to think, there is still another potential $1.25-2.5B left for eductaion which should make the Baptists happey, espeicllay if it goes mandated that ALL children k-12 get FREE text books regardless of the public or private school they attend!
I think it should not be does rick scott care, it should be he is not interested in the state of florida, other than as a business venture for himself, to make himself a profit and them move on… To even imply that care or any sort of feelings for the benefit of Florida is completely out of the question for this so called man..
William Kenny