Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Leesburg Better Watch out for those Smart Meters

Leesburg is planning to install a whole mess of "smart" electric meters in local residences.  Without comment, I suggest you pass this article on to their leaders.

Aren't we tired of sales people and lobbyists pushing expensive services and projects on to elected officials and staff without adequate research.  Things like Motorola Radio Systems, Waste processing plants, Repairing railroad tracks, free medical centers for ONLY local School District government employees, smart meters, etc.

Here it is:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/a-dumb-way-to-introduce-smart-meters/article2001596/ 

And, read the comments!

vj

 

 

 

 

Daily Commercial article on legitimacy of North Lake County Hospital District Tax

Written by Brad Buck, the article disclosed the tax reform efforts of Marilyn Bainter to improve oversight and constitutional legitimacy of the tax.  

You can read the article HERE.

We noticed that all three pictures in the Daily Commercial  were of recipients of care, or salaries from the hospitals, and there were no pictures of taxpayers in foreclosure who maybe could use the taxes now given to two local hospitals without any rules at all on how the funds are to be spent.  Other than quotes from Bainter, no other supporters of tax reform were quoted.

The tax generates about $10-million split between local Leesburg and Waterman hospitals, and the article did not disclose that both hospitals are PRIVATE non-profit corporations which have reported significant profits recently or in the past.   It also did not discuss that non-profit hospitals are SUPPOSED to absorb expenses for indigent care in return for escaping all taxes waived for non-profits.  Thus, the hospitals are getting duplicate benefits:  They do not have to pay property and other taxes because they are non-profits and must absorb indigent care costs, but then they get payments from the Hospital tax AGAIN for the indigent expenses.   And, we should mention that other local health care providers are NOT non-profits, and must compete with the hospitals which both escape taxes and get District tax payments to subsidize them.

We have written before about the total lack of specific rules on how the funds are to be spent, or how they are not accounted for in separate accounts with ability to verify where they were spent.  The Hospital District Board, which has 4 members who support the hospitals without question, refuse to initiate any type of forensic audit to verify how the funds were spent, and they refuse to meet monthly for public meetings to define tighter rules on acceptable uses for the funds.

And, so it goes...

vj

 

 

 

Georgia Passes Arizona Style Regulations to Curb Illegal Immigration

The big issue here is that Georgia's new law mandates that businesses with 10 or more employees must use the E-Verify system to confirm the legal immigration status of employees.

Here in Lake County, I noticed that the Lake County Government recently modified some Federal contracts to mandage usage of E-verify.  It was done quietly using the "consent agenda" and the County and State still do not require it.  But, if they are using Federal funds for a project, they are required to use it.

Note:  This article is from a Marietta, Georga newspaper, thus it also discusses "Cobb" county aspects of the new law.

Favorite quote:

"Taxpayer-subsidized, black market labor is only cheap for employers. It's a huge expense for the nation," King said. Moreover, to threaten a state boycott for simply enforcing the law is extortion, he said.

Golick said the radical left sought to demonize him and the bill's supporters at every turn as they worked to pass the bill.

"They continue to be oblivious to the fact that law-abiding citizens bitterly resent those who break our laws to get here, and then have the nerve to demand public benefits as if they're entitled to them - and then call us racists and everything else under the sun when we choose to live under the rule of law," Golick said.

Both Golick and King said the tactics of the opposition only reinforced the resolve to pass the bill.

"There's nobody I'd like to thank more than Jerry Gonzalez, his organization, GALEO, the ACLU and the rest of the open-borders race baiters for their rallies with thousands of screaming illegals chanting in a foreign language in front of the Georgia Capitol, which served to propel our legislation through the process," King said.

vj

================================================================

Cobb Republicans helped pass illegal immigration bill

by Jon Gillooly
jgillooly@mdjonline.com

April 19, 2011 12:00 AM | 546 views | 0  | 3  |  | 

SMYRNA - State Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), a co-sponsor of the controversial new immigration bill awaiting Gov. Nathan Deal's signature, said the measure represents a giant step forward in enforcing the laws against illegal immigrants.

The most significant provision in the bill is the requirement that private business use the federal E-Verify system to confirm the legal status of employees, he said.

Specifically, businesses with 10 or more employees must sign an affidavit swearing to use E-Verify to obtain or renew a business license/occupational tax certificate. Until now, only public employers such as the City of Marietta and their contractors were required to use E-Verify on newly hired employees.

The bill also clarifies the authority of local law enforcement by allowing them to inquire into a suspect's immigration status when that suspect is under investigation for another crime.

Golick said under no circumstance would police be able to simply inquire about someone's immigration status at the officer's discretion. Rather, only when an officer has probable cause to believe the individual has committed another crime, and the individual is unable to produce proper identification can the officer attempt to establish the immigration status of the individual. Golick said that provision is a significant and strengthening distinction from the Arizona law.

"Georgia has more illegal aliens than the state of Arizona, and my understanding is that recently released Census figures indicate that the state with the fastest rate of growth of illegal aliens over the past decade was Georgia," Golick said. "This has had a draining effect on our dwindling resources, especially given the economic recession."

State Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Austell) said his primary reason for voting against the bill is that immigration is a federal issue. Then there is the point that similar legislation in Arizona is caught up in the court system.

"Until the Arizona case makes its way through the court, I think we're just opening ourselves up to some huge legal bills," Wilkerson said.

To Wilkerson's first point, Golick said the federal government has consistently failed on the issue of immigration reform, making it inevitable that states would step in.

Like Wilkerson, Golick expects there to be lawsuits.

"To be sure, there will be litigation, but we have worked with our friend, Attorney General Sam Olens, on this issue every step of the way, and we are confident of our position," Golick said.

Wilkerson said another concern is that Georgia's economy relies on agriculture, which will be hit by the law when police begin demanding to see immigration papers of workers in that field.

"Police officers are expected to basically question anyone they think might be here illegally," Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said that's not only going to chill the migrant worker population, but he expects it will impact the hospitality industry as various groups boycott the state.

"We might have moved down a few notches as far as attraction. Too many groups feel like it's not something that should be done," Wilkerson said.

But anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King said there's no excuse for allowing illegal immigration.

"Taxpayer-subsidized, black market labor is only cheap for employers. It's a huge expense for the nation," King said. Moreover, to threaten a state boycott for simply enforcing the law is extortion, he said.

Golick said the radical left sought to demonize him and the bill's supporters at every turn as they worked to pass the bill.

"They continue to be oblivious to the fact that law-abiding citizens bitterly resent those who break our laws to get here, and then have the nerve to demand public benefits as if they're entitled to them - and then call us racists and everything else under the sun when we choose to live under the rule of law," Golick said.

Both Golick and King said the tactics of the opposition only reinforced the resolve to pass the bill.

"There's nobody I'd like to thank more than Jerry Gonzalez, his organization, GALEO, the ACLU and the rest of the open-borders race baiters for their rallies with thousands of screaming illegals chanting in a foreign language in front of the Georgia Capitol, which served to propel our legislation through the process," King said.

Of Cobb's 19-member delegation, all of the Republicans except Bobby Franklin, of east Cobb, voted for House Bill 87, known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011. All of the Democrats except Terry Johnson, of Marietta, voted against the bill.

From:  http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/12840744/article-Cobb-Republicans-helped-pass-illegal-immigration-bill?instance=secondary_story_left_column 

 

 

Lake County School Board Avoids Screaming Grassy Hill Mob and Saves $2-million

(Note:  This is from memory, but I think most of it is accurate...vj)

Monday, April 18, 2011 - Tavares, FL - It isn't easy, but today, at a 2pm Lake County School District workshop, your Lake County School Board, the School Superintendent Dr. Moxley and several staff members including Harry Fix, found a way to avoid a Grassy Hill elementary parent riot and still save $2-million.  The parent riot picture at left is not from Grassy Lake elementary!

Remember that issue of Grassy Lake elementary, and how they were over capacity, and initially staff wanted the School Board to spend $2-million to add more class space?

The Board was ready about two months ago to approve the $2-million based upon staff recommendations, and school staff talked about how they couldn't use the music room, and other reasons.  Then Board member Tod Howard, a true fiscal conservative and Fiscal Ranger hero, used out of the box thinking and asked why couldn't they re-assign the excess 100-125 kids to nearby schools that had available space.  Board member Jim Miller agreed.  It took Tod several meetings before Board member Kyleen Fischer, rather than voting with big spending Rosanne Brandeburg and Debbie Stivender to spend the $2-million, demanded more than one alternative from staff. 

At the same meeting, an expert on population growth described the lack of expected growth in the student population due to the economy, saying there would be minimal growth in new students for awhile.  Keep in mind that new families may bring new students every year to new home developments, but also that another class of kids graduates from each school level and moves up.  Thus growth in new, young students was not expected to exceed the loss of students moving up to other grades or graduating.

The next meeting, school district staff brought back several alternatives, with data, and an active charter school consultant furnished another alternative.   The plan selected then was to re-zone part of the Grassy Lake students so they would be given a choice to transfer to Minneola charter school, or go to Astatula elementary which was about 12 miles away. 

The Board was told that portables could not be used because available land was subject to some environmental regulation to protect "skinks".  A skink is a LIZARD and one internet article says there are 600-800 types.  So, this is also a lesson in how absurd environmental regulations are in Florida, that a school cannot expand in order to protect one of 800 types of lizards.

So, the plan was set, and a public hearing was scheduled for last Thursday at East Ridge elementary in a large room.   Parents of 700 Grassy Lake students were sent letters explaining the plan and details on the meeting.  I attended that meeting, and more than 100 parents attended, and 20 parents gave public input, some quite emotional, on reasons why THEIR kid shouldn't be rezoned.  Reasons included:

- they only lived 1 mile from Grassy Lake, so why be transferred to a school 11 miles away?

- the parents bought their house specifically so their kid could go to Grassy Lake.

- Apparently, the School District cannot require students to attend a charter school, so it was only an option (which they knew), but parents didn't like the only other choice provided which was Astatula elementary which was 11 miles away.

- when Minneola school was opened, apparently many parents chose Minneola over Grassy Lake (I think), but were turned down, so why now reverse that and be sent back to Minneola?

- other schools were not given as an option, like Clermont and others.

- students at Grassy Lake included some who lived out of the area and had waivers to attend there.  Why shouldn't they be transferred first.

and it went on... the emotionalism was high, especially when I and two other fiscal conservatives commended the Board for saving the $2-million and supported the expected decision.

At the same time, I heard conflicting information on how many parents had agreed already to transfer their kids to Minneola from Grassy Lake.  At the end of the meeting, Kyleen Fisher once again asked for more information regarding some points made by parents.

So, the decision was put off until today's workshop, when staff members provided four new "scenarios", including an entirely new one, which was then approved by Howard, Fischer and Miller, then joined by Brandeburg and Stivender (under protest):

- No kids would be transferred.

- The School District would lease five portable classrooms to take care of the excess students.

- A new ABC (Advisory Boundaries Committee) would be established with two appointees from the Grassy Lake area from each Board member.  It would take public comment and come up with a future, community generated plan for South County to handle capacity problems.

The result - the Board got out of any more screaming sessions and formed a committee to run them.  But, they pushed off a $2-million expenditure.   The cost of the five portables was $86,000 for the first year, and then $50,000 annually for a lease.   They would be placed on the section of land originally intended for the $2-million construction.  Magically, the skinks were no longer a problem - no one explained why, so now portables could be used.  I am guessing that before, staff only considered extra land behind the school affected by the skinks, and not the space intended for the new construction, which is right next to the school.  If so, that was another lession in using out of the box thinking.

Conclusion

- The series of meetings forced staff to provide alternatives to control costs and they found a number of them.  Staff should be providing these alternatives to start, and shouldn't just arrive at meetings with a big spending plan.

- Thanks to Tod Howard for being persistent in trying to reduce school costs, and to Jim Miller for supporting his fiscal conservative approach to spending.  Kyleen Fischer should be congratulated for twice demanding staff bring back alternatives, and they finally found a workable one. 

- Thanks to the skinks for not being a problem for the new portables alternative.

- Thanks to the members of the South Lake 912/Tea Party and the North Lake County Tea party for attending meeting to give support to fiscal conservative Board members in controlling expenditures.

- Thanks to the process and parents who showed up at the public workshop last Thursday. By voicing new issues, rather than just emotional pleas, some facilitated the process that arrived at the final conclusion.  Their feedback clearly generated the idea to create the ABC committee.  But, hopefully, that committee will not be loaded with parents who do not consider the cost trade offs of school zoning issues vs developer demands to load up new schools with excess students.

- Not much thanks go to Board members Rosanne Brandeburg and Debbie Stivender who consistently refused the cost reduction alternatives.  Instead, in this economy, with all the cost pressures on the School Board, they insisted to the last minute to blithely spend $2-million in tax funds vs portables or re-zoning.   Brandeburg was even featured in the TV interview below, but it seems like spending taxpayer money is not a problem.  You have to wonder whether they think they also represent the taxpayers, or only constant spending to make parents and teachers happy.  Remember, if cost controls are important to you, both Brandeburg and Stivender are up for re-election next year.  Or, if you like spending taxpayer funds without solid justification (in my opinion), then you know who to vote for.

- At today's meeting, one person researched why attendance was shrinking at Minneola elementary, and she said it was that most people were having to move out of Lake County to find work.  Co-incidentally, I read a report where food price inflation was 6%, which was huge, and as more inflation occurs, more people will have shrinking incomes and may lose their homes.  I have a separate post on inflation.  Again, a reason not to spend $2-million in this economy.

The only news reporter at the meeting today that I recognized was Channel 9's Berndt Petersen, and here is his TV report:

http://www.wftv.com/countybycounty/27589226/detail.html

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers AT comcast DOT net

Dick Morris: Inflation is Coming, and I Agree Obama & Democrats Should be Blamed

The Federal government now borrows $40-BILLION per week to pay interest on all the debt they have approved.  When someone says there is a $13-TRILLION or so deficit, that means the Feds have sold debt and agreed to pay interest to GET all that money.  OR, they PRINTED new money which increases the money supply, which causes inflation.  Obama and the Democrats have done both.  And, as interest goes up, I am betting much of the debt has cost of living escalators, so interest due to China and other buyers of US bonds and debt instruments will rise as interest rates rise.

I lived through the last great inflation bubble when President Jimmy Carter ran up costs and implemented all those liberal programs that run up inflation.  That was when I thought I had a GOOD DEAL buying a house at 9.5% interest rates, and then the rates went up to almost 20% due to inflation.

Recently, I have watched Obama implementing many inflation causing practices, including "printing money", and excessive borrowing money to fund all his social programs.  Now, inflation is starting to hit us, not only due to unrest in oil producing countries, but subsidizing food crops like corn to be used for subsidized fuel like Ethanol.  Af, food prices are leaping.

To be fair, however, if you do research, you will find that Republicans, including Ronald Reagan also ran up debt - but he did it to finance defense spending so as to bankrupt the soviets, which he did, thus Russia's economy  collapsed, the Berlin wall came down, and the cold war ended.  Then Bill Clinton came into office, and he apparently understood economics, and reduced the federal deficit to almost nothing.  Then it started going up again and Obama has hit new heights in deficit spending which creates debt.

So, below is one of many emails generated by political pundit Dick Morris on the coming inflation.  So, each time you pay more for goods and services, be sure to thank the current Democrats and Republicans who also voted for the spending programs for ignoring economics.

Several inflation aspects will hit local governments.  One is

Texas Sunset Commission Challenges Reason for Government Agencies

Tavares, FL - April 15, 2011 - This is what we need in Lake County and Florida.  A commission like one in Texas with a responsibility to review the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission questions the need for more than 150 agencies, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. The Commission seeks public input through hearings on every agency under Sunset review and recommends actions on each agency to the full Legislature. In most cases, agencies under Sunset review are automatically abolished unless legislation is enacted to continue them.

I found out about this Commission while reading THIS story on how the North Texas Tollway Authority is facing fraud allegations, and people are calling for this commission to review them.

There is even a menu item "How to Participate" which describes specifically how the public can become involved. 

This is a great idea for some Lake County Board member to build their fiscal conservative chops.  Create a commission like this for Lake County, and implement it to question departments and programs.

UPDATE:  We found that there ARE Sunset Reviews in Florida.  This is from the website of the Florida Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA):

The 2006 Legislature passed the Florida Governmental Accountability Act, (Ch. 2006-146, Laws of Florida, later modified by Ch. 2007-161, Laws of Florida) to create a legislative Sunset Review process to determine if a public need exists for the continuation of a state agency and its advisory committees. The Act provides for the creation of a Joint Legislative Sunset Committee and describes the membership and organization of the committee and committee duties. The Act also requires OPPAGA to provide primary research services to support the process and establishes the process, criteria, and schedule for the Legislature to assess whether state agencies and advisory committees need to continue to exist.

For more information about the Sunset Review process and publications produced during this process, see the Joint Sunset Committee's website.

OPPAGA Information Provided to the Joint Sunset Committee

• Sunset Reports
  • Sunset Reports 2007-08  <<<  Notice no reports from OPPAGA since 2008.

Visiting the Joint Sunset Committee website linked above, we found :

- There were only TWO "final reports" published on the "Publications" page and the last one was 33 pages and for 2010. It covered these departments:

Department of Community Affairs

Department of Management Services

  It recommended closure of the Council on Efficient Government, and my check of their website HERE indicated they were closed.  Most of their reports focused on privatization, and were from other sources, and their "Guidelines" were on outsourcing techniques.

Department of Children & Family Services

Department of State

Abolished several Councils and Committees, and merged them into other agencies.

- NO committee meetings since Feb., 2010.  It looks like they relies on OPPAGA to provide reports on selected agencies, and that stopped in early 2009 (when their budget was slashed after Jeb Bush went out of office, I suspect).

- There was a list of agencies to be reviewed each year HERE, but it seemed they stopped in 2009 or 2010.

- There isn't even a contact or staff roster page.

I wasn't too impressed.

Vance Jochim

Here is the Texas website:  http://www.sunset.state.tx.us/ 

Update on Florida Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts

We have written about challenges to the local North Lake County Hospital District for the last two years.

But, a new challenge about their value came up recently when Governor Rick Scott published an Executive Order 11-63 which is HERE, and it created the Florida Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts.

HERE is the official press release from Scott's office on the Commission.

HERE is a longer article on the Commission from HealthNews Florida.

The Governor appointed the head of Florida Taxwatch (website HERE) to be the head of the Commission and one reason may be that they published a report in 2009 (which is HERE) that was titled "Florida’s Fragmented Hospital Taxing District System in Need of Reexamination".

I read the Executive Order, and it lists 8 members of the Commission, and lists 7 tasks for the Commission to accomplish.  However,five of the tasks are specifically targeted to "government operated" hospitals which do not exist in Lake county.   All the hospitals in Lake County, including the two that benefit from the funds collected by the North Lake County Hospital District are private corporations, and not run by government.   Apparently, there are some other Florida counties that DO run their own hospitals, which are also funded by Hospital Tax Districts.

But, two of the seven tasks do seem to apply to any Hospital receiving District tax revenue, and I was told by a Florida Taxwatch representative that the Executive Order could be modified to be more specific related to issues that affect Districts like the one here in North Lake County.  (There is another Hospital District in South Lake County, but it has not been part of our oversight articles).

We will watch what happens with this Commission and periodically post updates.

vj

===========================================

Article from Health News Florida

Is hospital funding stuck in an 80-year-old model?

By Carol Gentry
03/25/11 © Health News Florida

Dominic Calabro, chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s new commission on hospital funding, says the group will need to answer two questions:

--Are local hospital taxing districts, which use local property tax assessments to pay for indigent care, still appropriate?

--Given the variety of ways the districts take in money and pay it out, what kind of set-up works best?

“They really are structures of the last century,” Calabro said. Most if not all were formed before Medicare and Medicaid were created in the 1960s, he said, let alone other programs that subsidize treatment for low-income uninsured people, such as the Medically Needy program or the "Low Income Pool" funds the state distributes to hospitals.

Scott named Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch, as chairman of the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts this week in an executive order. Florida TaxWatch is a non-partisan, non-profit group that looks for ways to cut costs in government and may be best known for issuing its list of budget "turkeys" -- legislators' pet projects -- after each session.

Calabro said the commission may determine that some types of districts still have value. On the other hand, “some forms are maybe so outdated there needs to be some kind of ‘sunset’ so they go out of existence,” he said.

“Sunset” refers to the legislative practice of regularly reviewing whether laws are still needed.

Calabro knows a lot about special taxing districts. Two years ago, he edited and published a report specifically on the topic that the new commission was formed to study.

The TaxWatch report, “Florida’s Fragmented Hospital Taxing District System in Need of Reexamination ,” said that taxing districts formed to meet one specific need sometimes don’t go out of business when that need is met. Using other people’s money, they find new things to do.

“Hospital districts have been subject to the same criticisms as other special districts in Florida: lack of accountability, mismanagement, escalating taxes, and expansion of purpose and power,” the study said.

While there are 32 active hospital districts in Florida, the TaxWatch study reported special concern with the 16 “independent” hospital taxing districts created by the Legislature. Those 16 districts are in 12 different counties; Volusia has the most, with three.

The independent hospital taxing districts have the right to impose property taxes, but the “millage rates” they set fall outside the caps set for counties and cities, the study said. And their governing bodies are not under the control of a county or city board and thus their budgets are not closely scrutinized, it said.

That led to an odd situation, discovered in a 2003 Attorney General’s study and recounted in the TaxWatch study: Even as the percentage of uninsured patients in non-profit and government-owned hospitals declined in the 1990s, the tax revenues in some districts were going up.

Meanwhile, for-profit hospitals were seeing more uninsured patients but not sharing in the revenue from the hospital taxing district, the study said. That led to questions of fairness – and in Sarasota County, to a lawsuit that is still going on.

Another finding in the Attorney General’s study was that the Broward districts paid their own hospitals at a rate higher than Medicare and Medicaid, thus removing any incentive to help patients enroll in the public programs.

By creating hospital districts one at a time through special acts, the Legislature inadvertently built a confusing “hodgepodge of characteristics, powers and regulations,” the TaxWatch study concluded.

Now that Calabro has the power to do the review that his own report called for, he’s in the position of the dog who finally catches up with the car he’s been chasing.

Calabro seemed a bit overwhelmed at the challenge and tight time frame. He said he hasn’t had a chance to talk to Scott or his staff about the scope of the project, the budget or the source of funds to hire an executive director and staff.

He said he doesn’t know whether the panel is supposed to focus only on the independent hospital taxing districts that operate their own facilities, or include districts that distribute money to lots of hospitals without owning one -- or even government-run hospitals funded in ways other than through a hospital taxing district, such as Jackson Memorial.

The executive order doesn’t really make that clear. It does cover a lot of ground, though.

Calabro said: “I was reading it and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a big challenge! It’s a very big task, a very important one.”

--Carol Gentry, Editor, can be reached at 727-410-3266 or by e-mail. Letters to the Editor are welcome.

 

Keywords:

North Lake County Hospital District, Florida Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts, Florida Executive order 11-63, Dominic Calabro 

 

Understanding Local Corporate Welfare & Identifying True Fiscal Conservatives

Tavares, FL - April 13, 2011 -  Today, I gave a presentation at the Lake  Federation Republican Women's Club in Tavares.

It was on these two topics:

- Understanding Corporate Welfare and Local Lake County Examples

- Identifying Behaviors of True Fiscal Conservatives (vs liberals or Republicans in Name Only).

Attached is the Powerpoint slide presentation.   It has over 20 specific fiscal conservative actions that I recommend for elected officials to show they actually are fiscal conservatives.

Download 2011-04-13 LFRWC Preso

Enjoy.

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers AT Comcast DOT net

 

Senator Paula Dockery on Sunrail Railroad Subsidy

Tavares, FL - Apr. 13, 2011 - The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners voted recently to subsidize the repairs of the privately (not public) owned CSX rail lines that run from Apopka to Eustis.   They voted to spend over $1-million of their funds for the project which will cost taxpayers a total of over $16.5-million (Florida State kicks in about $13-million).   The firm leasing the CSX line, Florida Atlantic Railway, will only pitch in about $1.5-million.

We call that corporate welfare.

We received the following memo from Sarah Hardy, a Legislative Assistant in Senator Paula Dockery's office on a related subject - the Sunrail subsidized rail project.  Dockery has voiced objections to earlier attempts to use taxpayer funds to subsidize railroads.

vj

================================================

Hi, Mr. Jochim,

Thanks for your continued fiscal vigilance on behalf of the taxpayers. I really enjoyed your “on the hunt” illustration in the email. It’s great.

Remember to mention that Orange County Commissioners recently voted to spend $18 million taxpayer dollars for infrastructure improvements on a private railroad corridor between Apopka and Eustis.  This is the rail line that The Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Executive Director, TJ Fish, keeps asking for support from the Legislative delegations, for the purpose of having a commuter rail spur to connect to Sunrail.  

Florida Central RR leases those tracks from CSX, so in effect, the taxpayers are providing corporate welfare to

Guest Editorial: Are Taxpayer Subsidized Commuter Railroads Justified?

(Note:  This subject of subsidizing rail lines is auspicious, because Lake County Governments recently voted to spend over $16.5-million in taxpayer funds to repair CSX privately owned rail lines in Lake County to facilitate commuter and freight rail operations without any reports showing facts to justify the expense - see our separate posts on this. VJ)

From Richard Riker   3/21/2011

In December of 2009 Florida Legislature passed legislation by 27-10 establishing Sun Rail. This was done in a special session in an Obama-Pelosi hush and rush style. Why was this done in the “dead of night” without public disclosure? Simple, it would not have passed in the light of day. An initial impact of the passage was, as in most cases, financial, the legislature paid CSX Rail $10.5 million for track. This total is far more that the national average cost for track at $500,000 per mile.

What are some of the other overall deterrents to rail transit? Ones that our legislatures should have considered before they voted for it. To begin with, and maybe foremost, only