Ill-Fated Sunrail Project Cost Tax-Payers $832,000 For Public Relations

But that's not all. The total state tax-payer monies already spent on Central Florida Commuter Rail: a whopping $80 million.

Florida lawmakers this spring voted to kill Central Florida’s planned commuter-rail system, but state contractors still made nearly $44 million on the deal.
That’s how much the state Department of Transportation spent on nearly 60 contracts tied to SunRail, according to documents released Wednesday.
The total does not reflect all spending on the ill-fated project. For example, it does not include money spend on right-of-way acquisition. ( estimated at $20 million)
But it does include costs such as $802,000 on public relations, $91,000 for archaeological services and $30,000 for a website.

Yet Florida refuses to support the already existing South Florida Commuter Rail, Tri-Rail:

Legislators have previously rejected a proposed $2 surcharge on car rentals to
finance commuter-rail projects. That was despite the possibility that the state might have to give back some $256 million in federal aid if it
does not provide a continuing funding source for Tri-Rail.

The Sunrail project has failed twice and incredibly talk of it being resurrected is once again in the news. This time, let's investigate the special interests at work before proceeding with this ill-fated project.

But what the Orlando Republican did not reveal is that the engineering firm that bears his family name has received $1.7-million from the state to do survey and mapping work for the controversial CSX project in Central Florida. Nor did Precourt disclose his ties when he voted for the deal last session, as some other lawmakers have when their public and private interests appeared to overlap.
Now, CSX is back under the SunRail moniker, and a fight is brewing
-- one that will shine more light on advocates like Precourt.

Just one blatant example of the "personal" gains are at stake here.

Besides, the ill-fated project is said to reduce congestion on I-4 by reducing traffic by just 2%:

As a point of comparison, the Light Rail Transit System in the I-4 corridor had
a cost of $600 million and was voted DOWN by Orange County voters. It had a
ridership in excess of 24,000 per day.
Give the voters a choice between light rail (I-4 corridor) with 24,000 trips a day and commuter rail (on CSX tracks) with 3500 trips a day.

Now doesn't that makes sense!!

John Mica Votes Against Funding for Sun Rail

In true form, as a representative of the Party of NO, John Mica votes against funding for Sun Rail, ........ he votes NO on the stimulus package.

Then John Mica has the nerve to brag about the funding the stimulus package "might" create for Sun Rail:

“The total appropriation for transit systems includes $750 million for the New Starts program,” Mica said. “Nationally, the Central Florida Commuter Rail project is next in line for final approval and federal funding from the Federal Transit Administration.
“The timing couldn’t be better. All the project needs is the State Legislature’s approval of the CSX-Florida Department of Transportation liability agreement,” Mica said.

And apparently Mica has also had the gall to brag about the highspeed rail funding that was put into the stimulus bill by Senator Harry Reid. So lets get this straight,......again John Mica voted AGAINST this highspeed rail funding and then turns around to brag about the funding being in the stimulus plan:

Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.
"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.
Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.
Republicans echoed their party line over and over during the debate: "This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority's favorite government programs," as Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., put it.

How do you explain that?

Mike Steel, a spokesman for House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio, at first ducked when asked about Mica and Young issuing press releases praising the bill
they'd opposed.
"I don't work for Mica or Young," Steel said initially.

So there you have it Mica was for the rail spending, before he was against it, before he was for it....

You figure it out.
One thing is for sure,.....Mica is against creating jobs or he would have voted YES on the stimulus bill.

BTW John Mica and Don Young have been connected before on questionable earmark spending in the case of another famous transportation pet project: The Coconut Road Earmark