The Issues
In the dark cover of a quickly called Special
Session without public discourse the Florida legislature gave away
our sovereignty by passing Sun-Rail. This was done Pelosi-esc
fashion in a hush and a rush. We the people had no time to
disseminate information or organize opposition. Many still don’t
know about the special session or the vote. There is no way this
spending debacle would have passed in the full light of regular
session when we are faced with tough budget cuts.
Yet they paid CSX Rail $10.5 million/mile of
track (over $650 million total for one portion of the bill) when the
national average is $500K/mile. Federal law requires freight rail to
share their lines with commuter rail therefore we should not have
even paid a penny.
Was this a bailout? No, worse because CSX
freight made $1.3 billion last year.
Further these alleged conservatives applied for
2.7 billion in Stimulus dollars with all its strings and mandates.
One mandate would be to shift population densities along the rail
lines. When the bill passed the House Committee, Representative Aubuchon declared "now we can shift the population density where it
is appropriate." I ask: According to whom? The UN? Why must we give
away National and State Sovereignty, our Individual freedom and our
property rights? Yet our representatives still sign onto trendy
Sovereignty legislation.
They claim that this will create jobs. Admittedly, there will be
some temporary “New Deal” government construction jobs. Amendments
to keep those jobs with Floridians and away from illegal immigrants
were struck down. The only permanent jobs would be the new
government bureaucracy.
The laws of economics show that government doesn’t create jobs;
they shift jobs away from the private sector. Some economists estimate
that government does this at 16 times the cost. Of Course, there will
be the new Cinnabon franchise at the train station. But even that
would only be a shift from a previous traffic density.
These alleged conservatives say this is a proper function of
government and that we pay for roads. Well, roads are paid for through
gas taxes by those who use roads. We don't pay for the cars and gas.
Yet we pay for the rails, trains and the fares, none of which go to an
airport, Disney or take traffic off of I-4. Ironically we raided the
trust fund designated for roads and bridges to further subsidize this
rail debacle.
To get an idea of the shear madness we need to go no further than
south Florida to look at Tri-Rail which is a microcosm of Sun-Rail.
Tri-Rail ridership is 15k/day. It currently brings in about $9
million/year in fares, $50 million in government subsidies and is
still $30 million in the red. It has been such an utter failure that
we were going to dissolve Tri-Rail once and for all. But instead big
government decided to double up on the rails.
What kind of lunacy would double the size of a failed venture ready
for the chopping block? They were given a $256 million federal grant
to do so. Now they want to reduce the number of daily trains but would
have to pay back the $256 million if they did.
Projected ridership for Sun-Rail is only 3k/day or 1/5 that of
Tri-Rail. In light of Sun-Rail’s larger budget, anyone that can do
simple 5th grade math would see an even bigger black hole which we
will continue to have to subsidize. Apparently, one loses this
“higher” math ability when elected to the Florida Legislature.
CSX Freight still will be using the rails and increasing its number
of trains hence increasing liability. But now the state of Florida
will be accepting the liability even if CSX is criminally negligent,
even if a CSX Freight conductor gets drunk and rams into a commuter
rail.
There is a High Speed Bullet Train component to the bill to be done
with a “no bid” contract. It would not seem wise to trust a government
that just paid 21 times the national average for rail that should not
have even cost a penny, to handle a no bid contract.
Our representatives claim to have done this because Florida is a
donor state that does not get its fair share of federal dollars. The
truth is we are in trillion dollar deficit spending. There are no
donor states. The truth also is that our children will be donors no
matter what state they live.
I did not elect these representatives to be the next one in line to
raid the treasury; I elected them to change the culture of government.
This bill is about everything a fiscally responsible representative
should be against. It is about Stimulus, bailouts, payoffs, backroom
sweetheart deals, No-Bid contracts, corporate welfare, Big spending,
Big government bureaucracy, unsustainable subsidies, federal mandates,
loss of sovereignty, loss of personal freedom/property rights and all
pushed thru without public discourse or debate.
The bottom line is if there was a true need for this debacle,
private industry and the free market would have filled it.
It is quite simple then isn’t it? Don’t buy what you don’t need and
definitely don’t pay 21 times the national average for it.
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