Private companies from around the world are lined up at the starting gate, anxious for the opportunity to move Floridas high-speed rail initiative forward.
The level of federal funding committed to the project makes Florida the envy of every other state in the nation. Its a project that promises to create more than 20,000 desperately needed jobs over the course of construction and it puts Florida taxpayers in a position to reap all of the benefits with private businesses assuming all of the long-term risk.
Those are all facts that were overlooked in the Jan. 6 Sunshine State News blog headlined, Tampa/Orlando High-Speed Rail Could Cost Taxpayers $3 Billion More Than Expected.
The blog, by Nancy Smith, relied heavily on a report, written by high-speed rail foe Wendell Cox and widely distributed by the Reason Foundation, which concludes taxpayers will have to pay too much for cost overruns and future operating expenses.
Had Smith investigated further, she would have discovered the calculations have a fatal flaw.They assume that taxpayers are liable for covering those costs and that is absolutely not true.
The Florida Department of Transportation has said repeatedly in public meetings and in private conversations with potential bidders on the Tampa/Orlando high-speed rail link that any bidder on the project must give a fixed-price cost for designing, building, operating and maintaining the system.This means no cost overruns which would become a liability of Florida taxpayers.
The request for proposals will additionally and specifically require that the successful bidder will operate the system from fare-box revenues only. No subsidies for ridership.
How can this be more plainly stated?
Cox and the Reason Foundation, either through ignorance or intent, ignored this when they said, The risk to Florida taxpayers is likely to be many times greater than the current projections.
Cox has used the same argument, with no real research, in an attempt to discredit earlier efforts to build a high-speed rail network in Florida.
For example, earlier in this decade he was paid $5,000 by high-speed rail opponents in an attempt to discredit a $2 million ridership study.He used the same arguments that hes using now, with no real quantifiable research on the subject.
As Paul Weyrich (conservative commentator) has said, You can say just about anything about what transit can and cannot do if you make up your own rules in developing your numbers. Thats what Wendell (Cox) does and will do
Heres what others have had to say about Cox:
Center For Transportation Excellence: "In every instance, Cox's statements are either inaccurate, distortions or claims not supported by the facts. Cox's technique seems to be to start with a snippet of the truth and stretch it like taffy until it turns into something else that supports his position."
Atlanta Journal Constitution: "(Wendell Cox is) a self-proclaimed (though untrained) transportation expert who makes his living writing propaganda ..."
San Antonio Express-News: "On point after point, (he) ... is incoherent or irrelevant ..."
Milwaukee Journal: Dismissed an analysis by Cox as "a screwy light rail report."
The Free Congress Foundation (a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank) says there is a "long list of people and institutions duped by itinerant transit critic Wendell Cox." In analyzing a report by Cox, the FCF concludes several times, "Mr. Cox is wrong."
Robert D. Miller (Chairman of Houston's Mass Transit Authority): "Cox's arguments simply don't make sense."
Austin Chronicle: "Over the last 10 years, Wendell Cox Consultancy has been the attack dog for groups opposing public transportation projects -- especially light rail and commuter rail ..."
The bottom line is that Florida taxpayers are not and will not be exposed to construction cost overruns, if there are any.Florida taxpayers will not be exposed to subsidies for ridership.
The successful bidder will be contractually obligated to assume that risk, if any, in exchange for the fare-box revenue generated for the link between Orlando and Tampa.Competition between the bidders can only further reduce the costs.
How much are they willing to gamble?We wont know until we ask. So proceed with the bidding and let the competition begin.
C.C. "Doc" Dockery is the former chairman of the Florida High Speed Rail Commission and former member of the Florida High Speed Rail Authority.
