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State Gives Railroad Executives Straight Track To Tax Dollars
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Published: January 7, 2008
What the railroad wants, the railroad gets.
That seems to be Florida's policy since the state has doled out millions to six of these privately run businesses to improve their tracks.
What's more, those millions have come with the approval of oversight committees that include railroad executives who stand to benefit most from this use of the state's transportation dollars.
And those executives got their appointments from state leaders who received, or whose party collected, significant political contributions.
There may be nothing wrong with the various panels' recommendations, and the money allocated may have benefited the state as well as the railroads, but there is a clear conflict of interest when influential railroad executives help determine state transportation spending that can directly benefit their enterprises.
An argument can be made that committee members with ties to rail are in the best position to know what the state needs from rail and what it should do for rail. But there are others - professors, retired lawmakers or DOT officials - who are experts in transportation who could fill that role.
Gov. Charlie Crist should take a hard look at the process and devise a system that better protects taxpayers.
Railroads have long been among the most politically influential institutions in Florida because they were critical to the state's development.
Henry Plant and Henry Flagler opened the peninsula to newcomers and tourists. Later the likes of Edward Ball, who started St. Joe Paper Co. with Alfred I. duPont and controlled the Florida East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville, held considerable sway over the Pork Chop Gang. And today, when the state's economic growth is so dependent on transportation, railroad executives continue in that vein.
As reported by the Tribune's Lindsay Peterson, the Legislature five years ago approved a major change at the state Department of Transportation by creating a system of roads, rail corridors and ports considered most important to the state's economic growth. This "strategic intermodal system" put rail in line for tax dollars just like seaports and airports. But unlike the ports, Florida's 15 railroads are privately run.
Since 2005, through legislation championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, millions have gone to a half-dozen rail companies whose owners and executives were insiders in the planning process.
By far the biggest beneficiary stands to be CSX Transportation which, in largely secret negotiations, struck a deal with the DOT to give up 61 miles of track near Orlando to commuter rail in exchange for $491 million to expand its freight operations in Polk County and elsewhere in the state. CSX vice president for planning, Lester Passa, sat on one of the transportation advisory committees.
The Legislature has yet to allocate the CSX money - that fight will come this year - but some $75 million has already been given or promised to five other rail companies.
Those projects, including a $6 million appropriation for Bay Line railroad in north Florida, were approved by the Florida Transportation Commission chaired by Bay Line owner Earl Durden. Two months after the 2005 legislation passed, Durden sold Bay Line and 13 other railroads for $243 million.
It's eye-opening how much rail wealth has been channeled through DOT. Industry influence should not be driving decisions involving public money.
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