MIAMI — The new Florida budget signed Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis eliminates some $200 million in state funding for the proposed Miami-Aventura commuter rail project, the Miami Herald reports.
The state money, along with Miami-Dade County funding, was intended to match $389.5 million in federal funds for the 14-mile, seven-station service planned on the Florida East Coast Railway/Brightline route from downtown Miami. A late change in the language the $115 billion state budget eliminated a provision setting aside some real estate taxes to provide matching funds for rail projects, according to a budget summary by Miami-Dade staff.
“I find it mystifying that the State legislature would defund a transit project that Miami-Dade’s Congressional delegation has made a priority and is included in the President’s budget,” Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins said in a statement to the Herald.
Higgins said she would push for “a correction to this mistake” when the legislature reconvenes later this year.
Florida House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami-Dade) told the Herald that the funds for the service — formally known as the Northeast Corridor Rapid Transit Project — were not at risk. If the Florida Department of Transportation “or any other entity attempts to shut down major Miami-Dade projects,” Perez said, “the Florida House will consider launching an investigation into abuse of office and political retaliation.”
But the Miami-Dade legislative staff noted that the new budget ended a rule that set aside up to $50 million yearly for the rail funding, instead sending the money into the general fund to offset revenue lost from newly passed tax cuts.
Another of those cuts — ending a 2% sales tax on business leases of commercial real estate — will eliminate another $27 million for Miami-Dade transportation projects, the Herald reports.
The Federal Transit Administration made the $389.5 million preliminary commitment for the Maimi-Aventura project last year when it approved the project’s advance into the engineering phase [see “Miami-Aventura commuter rail project …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 31, 2024]. The state is supposed to provide the $200 million to go with $337.9 million from Miami-Dade County. A final federal funding award is dependent on a review of factors such as environmental benefits and mobility improvements, and ultimately would require federal approval.
The project has been in development since 2020, when a proposal called for Brightline to build the five intermediate stations for the new service and to operate its trains.
TriRail and SunRail were kicked off with Federal and State funding with the understanding that TriRail was temporary and SunRail would eventually be supported wholly by its constituent counties. Now they are both local affairs. So asking for seed money is not out of line. The fly in the ointment is Brightline in that the politicos aren’t too keen on giving public money to a private company to run commuter trains. Might set a bad precedent.
When All Aboard Florida was announced, politicos up and down the Atlantic coast were stumbling over themselves to try and help it to fruition and AAF said “no”.
Be interested in knowing more details on the politics, or who is complaining in Tallahassee.
If this were a public commuter entity running on top of FEC tracks using Brightline stations (like Metra and UP) that might make the Libertarians happy.
FDOT just stopped funding Tri-Rail not that long ago, so the conventional wisdom is that the regional commuter authority should be funding this, not FDOT.
Brightline has been wavering in their commuter fare arrangements which is causing some consternation to people who have made living commitments along the ROW.
This new service is supposed to relieve seat congestion Brightline was dealing with on Orlando to Miami tickets. Seats were being bought out south of West Palm, which was blocking the seats from being booked in Orlando. So this is an attempt to get service defined for those who simply want to commute to Miami Central and not interfere with the more profitable Orlando to Miami service.