WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Wednesday said it would send $2.4 billion in stimulus money to other states should Florida Gov. Rick Scott reject the federal government's national high-speed rail project.
Speaking just hours after Scott announced he was abandoning the project due to cost concerns for the state, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney relayed the president's was prepared to simply send the allocated money to other states. Carney said:
We think that is an unfortunate decision. This goes right to the essence of what we have been talking about here. There has been a lot of bipartisan support for the need to create the kind of modern infrastructure in this country that will enable us to compete.
High speed rail is very much a part of that and we will make sure that that money is used elsewhere to advance the infrastructure and innovation agenda that is essential for economic growth.
We believe that the money that is allocated for high-speed rail as part of the Recovery Act is essential to the infrastructure agenda that this president has.
Shortly after Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) took office he declined to accept federal money for Wisconsin's rail system upgrades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) responded quickly by affirming that New York would gladly take the unallocated funds.
Democrats in Florida attacked the conservative braggadocio of their newly elected governor.
Scott has been governor for less than a month and he is already describing his unproven programs as models for the US.
"It's eating our seed corn," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
Scott's argument against high-speed rail is that it is prohibitively expensive for the state, with cost overruns potentially forcing Florida to fork over $3 billion in matching funds.
But those numbers, supporters of the project say, are drastically overstated if not pure fantasy.
Nelson's office, meanwhile, has said that the state would only be on the hook for another $280 million and that the senator was in the process of looking at alternative ways to raise the money to alleviate Scott's concerns.
Predictably, on Wednesday, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) released a statement urging the Obama administration to redirect the more than $2 billion in high-speed rail funds from Florida to New York.
Is Scott looking at a gift horse in the mouth? Rightardia thinks he is. More than $2 billion in funds could put a lot of Floridians to work and help Scott to meet his promise to create 700,000 new jobs in Florida.
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First Posted: 02/16/11 02:53 PM Updated: 02/16/11 03:29 PM