Florida Dems: Rick Scott approved one railway and not the other to swipe at Obama

That showed Scott “killed high-speed rail and the 71,000 job-years the project would have created as a partisan ploy to attack the president,” Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux said in a statement. 

“Considering experts agree that all the reasons Rick Scott cited and the questions he raised in stopping the critical investment in Florida’s infrastructure applied to the SunRail project much more than the high-speed rail project, his actions are clearly an attempt to bail out his toxic poll numbers,” Arceaneaux said. “Given this fact, Rick Scott owes Floridians an apology for killing the high-speed rail project and for destroying jobs to impose his extreme agenda on our state.”

Scott was one of three newly elected Republican governors to reject federal money for railways, joining Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. 

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) offered a different take on Scott’s decision, saying it “signals jobs and improved transportation for Florida’s future.

“I commend the Governor for moving forward and joining with local and federal partners in approving this transportation milestone,” Mica said in a written statement released by his office. “This is as significant for the state as when Henry Flagler brought the railroad to Florida and when President Eisenhower initiated the Interstate.  This transportation alternative offers the only real cost-effective, near-term solution for our region’s highway congestion, and will have tremendous benefits for employment.”

Mica said “thousands of jobs” would be created by the proposed railway.

This post was updated at 1:07 p.m. with new information.