Questions about rail funding

TAMPA - As it stands now, Florida will receive $1.25 billion federal dollars for bullet trains, just half the money it needs to commence construction on a high-speed rail line linking Orlando and Tampa.

The rest of the funding relies on a promise from the White House, which leaves some uneasy.

"It's a down payment," said Vice President Joe Biden at a late-January announcement rally in Tampa. Biden said the Obama administration will deliver on the remaining $1.25 billion after the state gets the project moving.

"I anticipate that we're going to get the other half of the money from Washington," said Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena. "If we don't, we need to look to our state to come up with the resources to complete it."

Saul-Sena says the rail project is too important to leave resting on Washington's good word. She hopes to see a back-up plan.

The White House funding promise is far from certain. The Obama administration is requesting $1 billion per year for the next five years to continue bankrolling rail projects here and in other parts of the country.

"Let's not worry about if they don't," said Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. "I have to feel confident that the rest of the money will be there in the later years when we need it."

Somewhere in the middle lies a call to include more private sector partnerships in the funding equation.

"In this world today, we cannot, quite frankly, put all the burden of these kinds of costs on the backs of taxpayers, either at the state or the federal level," said Ronnie Duncan, who heads the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority.

Duncan says it will be wise for Florida to entice businesses to actively contribute. He notes Disney has already donated land for a stop, and predicts other large corporations could be motivated to sponsor either the high-speed trains, the costly stations, or both.

"It would be a win-win for them. And it would be a win-win for taxpayers," he said. "Then we'd get these stations and other parts of the system built."