Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with members of Florida's congressional delegation and gave them one week to come up with a plan which would allow the state to accept $2.7 billion in funds to complete a high-speed rail corridor, money which Gov. Rick Scott declined to accept earlier this week.
In addition to the one-week deadline, there is another seemingly insurmountable catch: Gov. Scott must sign off on any plan the delegation comes up with.
There have been a lot of developments in this story over the past 24 hours. Follow below the fold for the details.
Florida given one-week deadline to save funding
According to The Miami Herald, Florida Senator Bill Nelson hosted a meeting in his office Thursday between members of Florida's congressional delegation and LaHood.
Rep. John Mica of Orlando, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, was the only Republican member from Florida in attendance.
The Herald described LaHood as "clearly upset" during the meeting, and he left without speaking to reporters. A spokesman for the USDOT later said the one-week deadline was given because the administration is anxious to get high-speed rail projects in the works, and other states are actively seeking the funds if Florida won't take them.
“The cart’s in a ditch right now and we’ve got to figure out a way if we can all pull it out together,” Mica reportedly told The Herald after the meeting.
Details on a possible structure for accepting the money were included in The Herald story:
The deal would work like this: the money would flow through the state to a group that would serve as a subgrantee. The proposed deal calls for the entity to assume any additional cost not covered by the federal grant and assume future risk and responsibility.
The article suggested Amtrak or a a coalition of Florida's regional planning groups could be prevailed upon to receive the money. But LaHood also said Gov. Scott would still have to sign off on any proposal to bring the money to Florida, and as of Thursday, Scott was sticking to his guns.
“I don’t believe we should be trying to push our counties into taking an irresponsible act of taking the risk of a high speed rail project,” Scott told reporters at a news conference Thursday, according to The Herald.
State lawmakers appeal directly to LaHood
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 26 Florida senators - representing a veto-proof majority - sent a letter to LaHood appealing to him to allow the legislature to accept the money over the governor's objection.
The letter reads, in part:
"Politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, as evidenced by this letter of bipartisan support."
"This project would create real jobs, cleaner and smarter transportation and true economic development for Floridians."
(So far, I've been unable to find the full text of the letter. If anyone finds it, please post a link in the comments).
Senate President Mike Haridopolos did not sign the letter, though he did give permission to Senate Republicans to do so. Haridopolos, who (reluctantly, he now says) voted for high-speed rail funding in the past, issued his own statement Friday morning supporting Gov. Scott's position against the project.
Haridopolos' statement reads in part:
“From the beginning, I have made it clear that Florida will cut $3.62 billion in spending this year and balance its state budget without raising taxes. We will not finance our future. We have also said that under no circumstances would we use state dollars, needed to support priorities like education, to pay for high-speed rail. For Floridians, that would be unforgivable.”
Can Gov. Scott legally refuse funds? No & Yes says PolitiFact
Some Florida lawmakers have questioned whether Gov. Scott has the legal authority to turn down the money. The St. Petersburg Times' PolitiFact crew took on that question Friday, and concluded the answer is both no and yes.
Here's the pertinent section from their article:
State statutes prohibit the governor from "impounding" state funds — meaning the governor cannot simply choose not to spend money budgeted. The governor has to veto a spending proposal, or accept it. And if he accepts it, he must spend the money for that purpose. The wrinkle in this case, of course, is that Gov. Charlie Crist signed the current budget, not Scott. But the budget is a law, which Scott is obligated to follow.
A second point: While most of the federal money for the rail project has yet to be awarded, some has.
The state received $66.66 million in a federal grant in May 2010 to begin implementing plans for the rail line. Officials say about $26 million of that money already has been spent.
[Snip]
Scott still holds cards
The money in play — the $300 million in state funding and the smaller federal portion — is peanuts when considering the entire $2.7 billion project.
And that is where Scott has the upper hand, lawmakers, former state officials and transportation experts told us.
Their conclusion is that the legislature could play chicken with Scott, forcing him to spend $131 million already in the state budget, as well as another $170 million in state funds already allocated but not spent, and possibly even the remaining dollars of the $66.66 million in federal funds already accepted by the state. Then they can accuse him of being fiscally irresponsible for wasting the money already spent by refusing to accept the $2.7 billion funding to finish the project.
But the bottom line is that if Gov. Scott continues to try to kill the project, he can probably kill it.
Tea Party backs Scott
No surpise here. Americans for Prosperity and the South Florida Tea Party are actively backing Scott's position, urging their members to contact Sen. Nelson and threatening to primary state senators who are pursuing the rail funds, and are also promising to oust Sen. Nelson in 2012 over the issue.
Move begins to allow recall of state elected officials
Florida currently has no provision for recalling elected state officials. But one Democrat in the Florida House is looking to change that, according to an article posted on the Web site of Orlando Bright House Channel 13.
Rep. Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) has sponsored House Joint Resolution 785 Wednesday. The bill would give citizens four months to circulate a recall petition for the recall of legislators, the governor or elected members of the cabinet.
For statewide offices, the petitions would have to be signed by voters in all 67 counties. For legislators, the petitions could only be signed by voters in the affected legislator's district.
In either case, the signatures must exceed 20 percent of the total votes cast in the previous election. If the petition drive were successful, a referendum would be held - statewide in the case of the governor or cabinet members, or within the district of an affected legislator - to determine whether the official would be ousted.
Kriseman insists the timing of this bill is a coincidence. "This bill is not aimed at Governor Scott. It's not aimed at any specific legislator. It's to give power to the people," he told reporters.
However, an unscientific Channel 13 poll Thursday found that 66 percent of respondents wanted the opportunity to recall Gov. Scott, while only 34 percent said they wouldn't want the chance to recall him.
There are also groups popping up on Facebook advocating Governor Scott's recall.
Proposed citizen actions
What can we do as citizens?
Contact Sen. Nelson, Congressman John Mica and State Rep. Paula Dockery supporting their efforts to keep Florida's high-speed rail project alive. Contact Gov. Rick Scott and State Sen. Mike Haridopolos to express your outrage at their short-sighted deficit peacockery (though I doubt that will do much good). And contact U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging him to find a way around the recalcitrant governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin... if we are ever to have a national high-speed rail network, it must be national... meaning it shouldn't be allowed to exist only at the whim of capricious, self-important governors of a handful of states.
I would also like to see a Wisconsin-style people's occupation of the capitol in Tallahassee. Sadly, I lack the time and organizational skills to put together such a direct action, and I would likely be unable to personally participate for more than a day. But Gov. Scott needs to be reminded that he was elected by the narrowest of margins, and by a minority of Florida citizens. He has no mandate, and he is not the state's CEO.
Contact links for the above-listed officials are as follows:
Sen. Bill Nelson
Phone toll-free in Florida: 1-888-671-4091
Washington Office: 1-202-224-5274
Rep. John Mica
Washington Office: 1-202-225-4035
State Sen. Paula Dockery
Lakeland Office: 1-863-413-2900
Phone Statewide: 1-866-248-6487
Fla. Senate President Mike Haridopolos
Melbourne Office: 1-321-752-3131
Tallahassee Office: 1-850-487-5056
Gov. Rick Scott
Phone: 1-850-488-7146
(Why am I not surprised that none of the Republicans have toll-free numbers? Maybe you should try calling collect!)
U.S. Department of Transportation
Phone: 1-202-366-4000
(Note: This is general public USDOT contact information only. If anyone has Secretary LaHood's direct e-mail contact address, please post it in the comments if you can.)