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March 20, 2009
SunRail vs. schools? That's not the choice

Beth Kassab
Orlando Sentinel Business Columnist

This week, Central Florida business people spent four hours on a bus to get to Tallahassee (in previous years it was a quick plane trip, but times are tough) to lobby for their top causes.

Chief among them: SunRail.

While they were there, more than 1,000 people from across the state met outside the Capitol and chanted in an enthusiastic show of solidarity.

Only that rally wasn't for SunRail. It was for education — one of the causes some of SunRail's opponents are trying to claim could suffer if the $1.2 billion deal for Central Florida commuter rail passes.

By comparison, the event for SunRail on Wednesday was an intimate gathering. The 130 or so folks from eight local chambers of commerce stood outside the Senate chambers, waived signs and tried to listen to the project's biggest cheerleaders, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Sen. Lee Constantine.

I say tried to listen because a microphone malfunction apparently made the speakers difficult for all but those in the front of the crowd to hear.

But that's the least of SunRail's trouble.

Its bigger problem is the perception that money for the rail project means money taken away from education or any number of worthy programs. This is getting a lot of attention during a year in which the state's budget deficit has ballooned to $6 billion.

Such claims just aren't true. A good portion of the federal, state and local money set aside for SunRail would simply go away if the project fails again this year. And the remainder would remain in Central Florida for other road projects.

"The senators know better," Constantine said. "They know that this money is not being taken out of the mouths of children or anything else."

SunRail's fate is going to be as much about winning the public-relations battle as it is navigating the thorny legislative path laid by a historic budget deficit.