Railroad Executives Had Hand In State Funding Plan (Heavy Jeb Bush influence)

[seafan]

Will someone come down here and arrest Jeb Bush? NOW?



Railroad Executives Had Hand In State Funding Plan

By LINDSAY PETERSON, The Tampa Tribune
December 29, 2007

A railroad company owner led the agency in charge of overseeing the state Department of Transportation when DOT proposed giving rail companies hundreds of millions to improve their private tracks.
Earl Durden was chairman of the Florida Transportation Commission when it reviewed DOT's five-year work program in early 2005. Included in the plan: more than $6 million in state tax money for Durden's North Florida railroad.
Another rail company executive, Ben Biscan, sat on two committees that helped define which projects would be included in the five-year plan. His Florida Central and Florida Northern railroads received about $10 million.

Since 2005, through legislation championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, millions have gone to a half-dozen railroads whose owners and executives were insiders in the DOT planning process. They also were major donors to state political candidates.
The biggest company involved is CSX Corp., whose vice president for planning, Lester Passa, sat on one of the transportation advisory committees with Biscan. The state recently signed a $491 million deal with CSX to buy 61 miles of its tracks in the Orlando area for commuter rail and help the company expand its freight operations in Polk County and elsewhere in the state.

The Legislature will be asked to give the deal its final approval in the spring when it considers DOT's annual budget, expected to exceed $8 billion.
But in addition to setting aside money for CSX, the 2005 Florida Legislature gave about $75 million to the state's smaller railroads, including Durden's Bay Line, based in Panama City.
Florida East Coast railroad is getting more than $40 million to expand and upgrade tracks along its line between Jacksonville and Miami. FEC executive Heidi Eddins sat on the transportation commission with Durden.
The rail subsidiary of U.S. Sugar Corp. received nearly $14 million for upgrades to its tracks around Lake Okeechobee. Norfolk Southern got $2.5 million.

All these companies have contributed generously to state candidates running for office. U.S. Sugar and its executives have given at least $9 million since 1996, including $4,000 to Bush and more than $1 million to the state Republican Party. Republicans hold a majority in the state Legislature.
CSX, its executives and lobbyists have given more than $1.1 million to state candidates, including $6,000 to Bush and more than $547,000 to the state Republican Party.
Durden, together with the many railroad companies he controlled and his immediate family members, has given more than $285,000, including more than $16,000 to Bush.

.....

After the FTC signed off on DOT's work plan, it went to the Legislature, where it passed. Among the billions lawmakers approved for transportation projects during the next five years was more than $350 million for CSX, Durden's Bay Line, Biscan's railroads and many others for track expansion and improvements.
Bush lauded the bill that provided much of the transportation money, saying "investing in our transportation system is vital to Florida's economic prosperity and our high quality of life."
But as the state prepared to sign the $491 million deal with CSX this year, news of the plan emerged, and several lawmakers began to complain.

"These railroad companies are for-profit operations. Why is the state giving them money?" asked state Sen. Michael Bennett, a Bradenton Republican who helped write the bill.
There were no hearings on the rail spending and no discussions on the House or Senate floors, particularly on the CSX deal, they said. The projects were tucked into DOT's five-year work program, which fills hundreds of pages.
Two months after the 2005 Legislature passed the transportation spending plan, Durden sold his rail company, a collection of 14 smaller railroads, called short lines. The buyer, rail company Genesee & Wyoming, based in Greenwich, Conn., agreed to pay him $243 million.

A Genesee & Wyoming spokesman, Michael Williams, said the state's decision to spend $6 million on one of the railroads, Bay Line, was not a significant factor in the sale.

.....

Filthy, thieving, money-laundering liars, the whole lot of them.

[acmavm]

1. Rule of thumb: Where there's a bush there's a great crime in progress.

Anyone else WOULD have been arrested by now.

[butterfly77]

2. What about that guy named Snow...

who was somehow a owner of the railroads, he was in bush's cabinet and he was head of the treasury or something, he stole what he wanted and then resigned...These people have been changing the numbers and stealing like mad. Elaine Cho is Mitch McConnell's wife and she doesn't know a damn thing. McConnell has been running the labor department and changing the statistics...Bush said today the economy is just wonderful, with his lying ass..