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ORLANDO - Distracted by a loss of funding and under pressure from Gov. Jeb Bush, high-speed rail officials deferred a decision Wednesday on a controversial route for the Tampa-to-Orlando leg of the state's bullet train.
At the same time, the board of the High Speed Rail Authority worked out a plan that might persuade Gov. Jeb Bush to restore to the state budget $7.2-million in operating capital he slashed last week with a line-item veto.
Without the money, there is no certainty that the board will be able to hold another meeting, authority chairman Fred Dudley said.
It was the latest odd twist in a saga that began in 2000 when voters unexpectedly approved a constitutional amendment providing for a high-speed rail system to connect the largest metropolitan areas, with construction to begin by November this year.
What prompted Bush's veto was the Legislature's failure to strip the rail authority of its power to grant sales tax exemptions to rail vendors. Authority board members are happy to give it up.
To that end, they voted unanimously Wednesday to ask Bush to put such an item on the agenda for a special legislative session. If lawmakers will give the governor what he wants, the board said, perhaps he could be convinced to restore the $7.2-million to the budget.
If that doesn't happen, several board members said, then the entire bullet train idea should be allowed to die.
"For the authority to be cut off at the knees is not right," said treasurer Lee Chira. "If (the restructuring) doesn't pass, then (end) the whole thing. If it does, then maybe he can restore the money."
Board members voted unanimously last month to make a decision this month on which route the new train would take from Tampa to the Orlando International Airport. The issue has attracted attention because Disney officials are pushing for a route up Interstate 4, and then east on the Greeneway toll road to the south side of the airport.
Disney has offered 50 acres of its land, worth an estimated $50-million, for a station on the theme park property and pledged to divert 2.2-million riders who travel between Disney and the airport to the train, which would mean ending a profitable bus service.
But if the rail authority chooses a more northern route, which serves the Orlando Convention Center and the attractions along International Drive along the Beeline toll road, Disney has said it will wash its hands of the project and will not allow a station to serve its attractions.
"We're not willing to support a system that disenfranchises Osceola County and parts of southwest Orange County," said Tom Lewis Jr., Disney's vice president for transportation development.
The authority came close to picking the Greeneway route Wednesday. Board member William Dunn made a motion for the Beeline but couldn't get a second. A motion for the Greeneway died 5-3, but not because authority members didn't want that route.
According to several board members, Bush's staff called them Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and asked them to defer a decision, apparently in the hope that local officials could settle the controversy over a route themselves.
"That's ridiculous," said C.C. "Doc" Dockery, the Lakeland businessman who spent $2.7-million of his own money to persuade voters to approve the bullet train amendment. Dockery now sits on the authority board.
"We were fighting over these same issues 15 years ago during the first high-speed rail authority time," Dockery said.