This is really quite pathetic. Talk about corporate welfare? Even Republicans are trying to figure how this all went down. They are stymied a lot lately in stopping the Marco Rubio rollercoaster. Some of the Republicans from our area are truly concerned, and they feel powerless.
Backstory:
CSX is taking over areas of Central Florida with little or no oversight.Whether it is the good fortune of having your buddy Gov. Jeb Bush honchoing a deal for you or whether CSX CEO Michael Ward is simply a good negotiator, it pays handsome dividends.
In November 2004, CSX executives made a half-billion-dollar pitch to Bush's Florida Department of Transportation. That pitch is now being played out in an impending agreement to pay CSX $491 million of taxpayers' money to move some of its freight trains off what they call the A Line, running down the east central part of Florida to Orlando over to the S Line, running down through west central Florida: Gainesville, Ocala, Plant City and Lakeland. The terminus is Winter Haven, where CSX wants to build a huge intermodal logistics center.
The payoff for CSX's Ward was $36 million in salary and benefits paid to him in 2005 and 2006.
Much of the funding for the $491 million, a first-of-a-kind deal for a private company, was accomplished in the 2005 session of the Florida Legislature. The Tampa Tribune reported in its Nov. 28 edition that few legislators knew of the Bush-backed Senate Bill 360 where the funding was inserted just before midnight on the last day of the legislative session, May 6.
Now today's story....the House rammed through a bill to protect CSX and put the burden on liability on the state.
Proposal Gives CSX Liability LeniencyTALLAHASSEE | A deal passed Thursday by a Florida House committee would force the state to pay legal costs resulting from accidents on a proposed commuter rail line in Orlando, even if a private railroad company was at fault.
"If we want to put passengers on that line, then we have to accept responsibility," said Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, chairman of the House Infrastructure Committee, which passed the indemnification Thursday. There are still many more stops before the plan faces final approval, with a May 4 deadline.
Under the proposal, even if CSX railroad employees or actions were totally responsible for an accident involving passengers, the state would be liable for the legal damages suffered by passengers.
The deal is not totally done, and some important voices are speaking against this now.
This whole deal was given birth during Jeb's tenure, but he get very irate if you question him about it.
Jeb Bush said angrily: "CSX was no secret deal ... I resent the implication"Bush, in Lakeland as a speaker for two Southeastern University events, was asked after his afternoon speech if he had time to answer questions.
He said he wouldn't if the questions were about CSX.
..."“There was no secret deal ... I resent the implication,” Bush said angrily. “I believe a significant number of people in this community support the thousands of jobs it will bring.” -- Polk County News Blog
The people in several Central Florida cities who had no say, who knew nothing about it..are resentful, too.
