Government off the Tracks

On the same week that Metro Orlando made the Top Ten list published by Forbes Magazine of worst commutes, and the Sentinel was publishing articles on how the Tampa area and the Orlando area were melding together into a super-metro area, the Florida Legislature tore themselves away from trying to outlaw baggy pants and Truck Nutz long enough to play their favorite game, "what's in it for me," and killed the Central Florida commuter rail project.

Much has been written already about how this action will damage Florida's standing in future attempts to secure federal transportation funding, and how the legislature bent over to the trial lawyers' special interest group. Let's talk about what it means here in Osceola County.

First, since our county economic development effort at bringing high-paying professional jobs to Osceola County ranks right up there with our school district delivering A-grade schools, those in our community who want those professional jobs will continue to commute to Orange County and Orlando for the foreseeable future. And now they will continue to do so in the line of cars on I-4.

Downtown Kissimmee businesses will not see the potential bump in morning and evening rush traffic as passengers embark and disembark from the train. The same can probably be said for the businesses that were planned to locate at Tom Chalifoux's latest business plaza, planned right across the street from the Poinciana rail station.

We think the Kissimmee City Commission can back away from their theory that they were going to be able to engage in some public/private partnership to redevelop Toho Square into 2-3 levels of parking with 2-3 levels of mixed use development above it (ala City Center). They're going to have a hard enough time dealing with the KUA Hansel Plant white elephant for the coming years.

And to Senator Dockery, we say this: have you noticed that CSX Transportation has been running a major national marketing campaign for the last few months touting how much more efficient rail is for hauling freight? In light of the fuel price situation, wouldn't it be a bummer if Lakeland started seeing more trains, and more lengthy trains anyway? After all, CSX owns the tracks.