Rick Scott, the businessman turned politician who is Florida’s governor-elect, is sure to bring big changes to the State’s transportation and growth management policies (and budgets). Armed with a super-majority republican State Legislature and a businessman’s anit-regulation/anti-tax instinct, Scott has made various statements indicating little support for initiatives like High Speed Rail (an issue he later went back on), and vowing to bring substantial changes to the State growth management agency, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA). During the gubernatorial debates Scott commented:
You can go all across the state and developments have been killed by all the regulation, all the paperwork. In fact you have to go to three or four agencies…DCA has killed jobs all across this state. (Politifact Transcript)
Advocates and planners will have to wait and see what the governor-elect has in mind for existing Smart Growth and green transportation policies (to say nothing of his effect on environmental regulations), but the future does not look great. There is hope that Scott will continue to soften his stance against spending any money for the first leg of High Speed Rail in Florida between Tampa and Orlando, especially given the range of support for the project from other republican leaders (and the fact that most of the funding is coming from the federal government).
On the future of HSR from Orlando to Miami, Scott can pass the buck to the feds who are ultimately responsible for the majority of the expense. The outgoing Sen. Lemieux had this to say:
We worked together to get [the first stimulus] money. I think we need to go to Miami, but it will be far more expensive (than the Tampa-Orlando route) and with our current financial crisis and pledge of no more stimulus I would not support more money. It’s not there.
Sun-Rail, Tri-Rail, the anticipated SFECC, and other State DoT funded bicycle/pedestrian transportation programs are likely to face scrutiny and drastically reduced funding unless they can show that they are ‘self-supporting’ (per the the Scott Seven Point Plan). And although highways are not self-supporting, that is not likely to stop Scott from funding roadway expansion, given that his only written statement of transportation policy is a letter of support to the Sate Transportation Builders Association (a road and bridge lobbing group). It sounds like governor-elect Scott wants to get the sprawl machine running again, building highways and subsidizing sprawl- all under the guise of job growth. Let’s hope that Scott sees the opportunity he has to put the nail in the coffin of subsidized sprawl and the undermining economic effect it has on our existing developments.
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On his new website http://www.scotttransition.com he has a tab where you can provide suggestions. I feel that if we can bombard his inbox with pro-rail and pro-mass transit suggestions he will think twice before making any cuts.
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