High-Speed Rail Project Dies with a Whimper

BRADENTON – The effort to bring high speed rail to Florida has finally been put to rest. The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously in turning down the request of two state senators to force Governor Rick Scott to accept $2.4 billion in federal funding to build the HSR project connecting Tampa and Orlando.

The decision is expected to end efforts to revive the project, which Scott has called a "boondoggle" that could cost Floridians astronomical amounts of tax dollars if there were significant overruns. Supporters have claimed that such reasoning was unsound since the structure of the project put such risks on private industry.

The Senators, Thad Altman and Arthenia Joyner, claimed that because the project was approved by an act of the state legislature and signed into law by the preceding governor, Scott was required to accept the funding. However, the court ruled that even though the legislature approved the project, Scott was still entitled to refuse the funds.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said that he had spoken briefly with Scott yesterday and that the governor reiterated his opposition to accepting the funds. LaHood said in an announcement that he would send the money to another state seeking HSR.