• • Quote of the Week
• • Callaway's Commentary
• • Monday, 5/30/11
• • Tuesday, 5/31/11
• • Wednesday, 6/1/11
• • Thursday, 6/2/11
• • Friday, 6/3/11
• • Demotivation Humor

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul

can always depend on the support of Paul.”
-George Bernard Shaw

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Now that the Legislative Session and our veto effort have concluded, it’s time to turn our full attention to the upcoming 2011 FBT Transportation Summit.

With this year’s Summit taking place July 13-15 at the historic and beautiful Renaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg, we’ve only got 6 weeks to go. 

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Sweeps of trusts balance Florida budgets

5/29/11 © Ft. Myers News-Press

Dishonest but necessary, legislators say - Lawmakers and governors have used a broom to balance Florida's budget during the recession, sweeping $2.8 billion from 95 dedicated pots of money and using it to keep the state in the black.

·         Legislators admit it's fundamentally dishonest.

·         But they say it's necessary to deal with contingencies in bad years.

·         Road builders, as part of a coalition of business groups, called for a gubernatorial veto of a $150 million sweep of the State Transportation Trust fund, the latest in a series that's taken $270 million away from road construction in the past four years.

·         The Florida Transportation Builders Association says the trust-fund sweep from fuel-tax money proposed this year will mean thousands of jobs not created.

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Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature: Tough Choices or Wrong Choices?

5/31/11 © Sunshine State News

Opinion: Raiding trust funds piles burden on stressed local governments, lowers quality of life - Rick Scott isn't the first governor to make a play for Florida's 124 trust funds. But he joins the state's most egregious abusers of them. It's one of the things this rookie outsider has in common with the 2011 Legislature.

·         Trust funds are the Rodney Dangerfield of Florida's fiscal structure.

·         During the 2011 legislative session, lawmakers snatched a total of $524 million from 31 different accounts. They said they had to do it. They said they couldn't balance the budget if they didn't hit the trust funds.

·         Included in the sweep was $150 million from the State Transportation Trust Fund.

·         To veto-proof it, they attached it to education -- meaning, if Scott vetoes the raid, the transportation money goes straight to education, not to roads.

·         Thousands of jobs and a ton of vital projects are not going to happen.

·         We can thank the Legislature for that debacle.

·         "Tough choices" this session? The ones I saw mostly were the easy choices, if not the out-and-out wrong ones.

Interstate 95 express lanes in Broward due by 2013

5305/31/2011 © Miami Herald

Interstate 95 express toll lanes are coming to Broward County, but motorists will have to wait a couple of years until they can take advantage of them. Construction to extend I-95’s express lanes to Fort Lauderdale from the Golden Glades interchange in North Miami-Dade is set to begin late this summer or in early fall. When completed in early 2013, solo drivers will have the option of paying a toll for a zippier commute from Fort Lauderdale to downtown Miami and vice versa.

Canal Widening Great for Port Hubs

5/31/11 © GlobeSt.com

The $5.3 billion Panama Canal expansion, which will boost the current ship cargo-carrying capacity through the waterway locks by 300% when it opens in 2014, is expected to also create a demand for more industrial development at key port connections throughout the United States. Along with large ports such as Norfolk, VA and those in New Jersey, industrial hubs connected to ports will also likely see increased demand for warehouse properties, according to a recent study by Jones Lang LaSalle. The expanded canal is supposed to open on Aug. 14, 2014, the 100th anniversary of the first opening day of the canal. Larger ships are expected to begin transiting almost immediately, and these ships, to be cost effective, will most likely be full, boosting the requirements for large ports all along the East Coast.

New information on Delta flight that lost contact with Tampa tower

5/31/11 © St. Petersburg: WTSP (Ch. 10)

Last month, we told you about a Delta flight that lost contact with the control tower while attempting to land at Tampa International Airport. The plane was forced to circle above the airport while the pilot communicated with approach controllers who were also trying to radio the tower. See our original story here. It was nearly 3:00 before an FAA manager finally reached the control tower by telephone and notified the bewildered controller that Delta flight 1129 had been calling in trying to land. The flight initiated a missed approach and landed safely on the second try.

Highway resurfacing under way in Plant City  

5/31/11 © Tampa Tribune

A contractor has started resurfacing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Forbes and Turkey Creek roads. Better Roads Inc. is improving the highway on behalf of the Florida Department of Transportation. The $1.4 million project will be completed in the fall, DOT spokeswoman Kris Carson said. The improvements include a new 5-foot wide sidewalk that will be added on the north side of the highway between Forbes and Turkey Creek roads and on the south side between Charles Wilkinson Lane and Turkey Creek Road. In addition, the contractor will replace the traffic signals and poles with new hurricane resistant signals and poles at Forbes Road.

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Interstate 10 Widening Project Taking Shape

6/1/11 © WJXX ABC 25 Duval County

A road project that is entering its third year on Interstate 10 is taking shape, with the Department of Transportation saying work is 75 percent completed. Work on the highway began in early 2009 and involves adding lanes and widening bridges.  The project starts near downtown and extends west to Cecil Commerce Center Parkway.

Rejecting high-speed rail money was big mistake

6/1/11 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Opinion (by Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings): As gas prices hover around $4 per gallon nationwide, Floridians are reminded yet again of what could have been. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced on May 9 $2 billion in high-speed rail awards to boost train speeds in the Northeast Corridor, expand service in the Midwest, and provide new, state-of-the-art locomotives and railcars. These funds could have gone to Florida. In fact, they did. This historic opportunity was lost, along with the expected 23,000 construction jobs, commerce and tourism it would generate, when Gov.Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail in February.

California’s Bullet Train — On the Road to Bankruptcy

6/1/11 © Innovation NewsBriefs

Opinion: For California’s high-speed rail boosters including their chief cheerleader, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the month of May must have felt like a month from hell. First came a scathing report by California legislature’s fiscal watchdog, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), questioning the rail authority’s unrealistic cost estimates and its decision to build the first $5.5 billion segment in the sparsely populated Central Valley between Borden and Corcoran.

Endeavour returns for last time

6/1/11 © Orlando Sentinel
The last and next-to-last ships in America's 30-year space shuttle program passed in the night early this morning as Endeavour returned to Earth completing the penultimate mission and Atlantis crawled slowly toward its final turn on the launch pad. After Atlantis, NASA officials concede, there will be a lull before NASA can create a new space program for Kennedy that might provide an economic engine for the Space Coast, as the shuttle program has been for 30 years, and as other manned-space flight programs were before that. Already, thousands of shuttle workers have been laid off, and thousands more will yet be after the Atlantis mission is completed.

Digital Cameras and Bluetooth Ease Travel Through Houston Airports

6/1/11 © Government Technology

Last year, HAS partnered with Purdue University to conduct a unique study: The two entities used Bluetooth technology to track the nearly 50 million people who passed through Houston’s airports. Officials hope the study’s results, which are also of interest to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), will ultimately improve customer service and the general airport experience.

CSX train derails; Taunton police investigate theft of railroad tracks

6/1/11 © Taunton Gazette

A CSX railroad engine en route to a delivery in Taunton’s Myles Standish Industrial Park derailed Wednesday afternoon after thieves cut away two 8-foot sections of solid steel track, authorities said. No one was injured as a result of the incident, which observers on scene said ranks as the most audacious example of metal theft in recent memory.

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Florida Chamber and Associated Industries: A Side-by-Side Comparison

6/2/11 © Florida Trend

Similarities and differences - With a degree of overlap in their memberships, the two organizations are frequently on the same page and collaborate on many business-related issues like unemployment compensation reform, job creation and some legal reform bills.That said, one group will often take more of a lead on a particular issue. While AIF, for instance, calls the shots on workers' compensation, the Chamber is in the saddle when it comes to tort reform. Although both groups supported efforts to kill Hometown Democracy, the Chamber took the lead in that fight, ultimately spending more than $10 million to block Lesley Blackner's proposed amendment with its "Vote No On 4" campaign.

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Employment growth slows sharply in May

6/3/11 © Reuters

Employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent as high energy prices and the effects of Japan's earthquake bogged down the economy.

Report: Scott to decide SunRail’s fate by month’s end  

6/3/11 © Orlando Business Journal

Gov. Rick Scott said he’s going to make a decision on Central Florida’s planned commuter rail by the end of this month, WDBO reported. Previous reports had said he wouldn’t make a decision until July. Scott said he is basing his decision for the $1.3 billion SunRail project on whether it is the right use of local and state Department of Transportation resources, the report said.

EPA unveils new mileage stickers as Floridians ask why fuel economy 'may vary'

6/3/11 © South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Michael Nier of Boca Raton is one of many Florida drivers questioning how the federal government arrives at the Environmental Protection Agency fuel mileage numbers. "I've asked many people in the car industry," Nier says, "and not one of them knows the answer." When a gallon of regular gasoline was $2 a gallon, the question was merely interesting. As gas approaches $4 a gallon, the question is downright compelling. At lower prices, fuel mileage may be an incidental consideration when we buy a car or a truck, but at near-record prices, gas mileage may be the driving factor in a purchase decision.

Former TSA Agent Accused Of Stealing From Passengers

6/3/11 © Orlando-WFTV

A former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent at Orlando International Airport could spend a decade in jail after being accused of stealing from passengers' luggage. Authorities said Elliot Iglesias stole $5,000 worth of laptops from travelers' luggage while working at Orlando International Airport before he was eventually fired.

Rail dreams - Transit options could affect Pinellas Park

6/3/11 © Seminole Beacon

The Pinellas Park City Council members were only mildly receptive to a presentation about countywide transit options currently being studied by the Pinellas County Alternatives Analysis, despite the fact that many of the potential routes would cut directly through Pinellas Park.

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