CALL TO ACTION!!

THIS IS BIG! The Florida Development Finance Corporation decided to accept the county’s request to move their board meeting to approve the Private Activity Bonds to a closer venue – Orlando BUT, they also moved the date up to MARCH 6 at 2:30 pm!

All Aboard Florida’s Brightline has renewed its push to sell millions in tax-exempt bonds to help pay for its proposed passenger train service connecting South Florida to Orlando.

The Coral Gables-based company first sought permission to sell $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds in 2014, but the tight municipal bond market forced officials to shelve the sale last year.

All Aboard Florida will have the chance to ditch its current financing plan and secure a better deal before it returns to federal court to face the Treasure Coast's latest attempt to derail the project, a judge ruled Thursday.

The railroad company last week asked for — and on Thursday was granted — an extra month to respond to the counties' most recent filing. Martin and Indian River in that filing asked the court to block All Aboard Florida's access to the $1.75 billion of tax-free bonds it was issued last year.

RICH CAMPBELL - TCPALM

The Super Bowl of transportation projects — All Aboard Florida's plan to run 32 daily passenger trains between Miami and Orlando starting in late 2017 — has entered the fourth quarter.

It's crunch time.

I wrote three months ago the marketplace is the final hope of Treasure Coast residents to stop All Aboard Florida. We've reached a critical juncture — where potential investors must decide if the project is worth the risk.

DARRELL PRESTON - BLOOMBERG

Fortress Investment Group sold Florida officials on its plan to build the first new privately run U.S. passenger railroad in more than a century, saying it will get 3 million cars off the road, create 10,000 jobs and provide a $6 billion jolt to the economy.

The New York private-equity and hedge-fund company now has to persuade another crucial audience: Bond investors who question whether Sunshine State travelers will leave their cars behind to ride on the 235-mile (378 kilometer) route from Orlando to Miami.

The final environmental impact statement on the All Aboard Florida project, released Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration, is everything I expected it to be: a whitewash of the facts, a minimization of impacts to our region, and a rubber-stamping of the project.

In short, the report is a JOKE.

The entire process has been a CHARADE.

The system has failed Treasure Coast residents opposed to All Aboard Florida. The only real hope, at this point, to stop the Miami-to-Orlando rail project lies with the marketplace:

MICHAEL MAYO - SUN SENTINEL

Getting $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds approved by a state board on Wednesday looks to be the easy part for All Aboard Florida.

The seemingly harder part for the proposed Miami-to-Orlando express train: Getting investors to buy the risky unrated bonds (junk bonds, in financial parlance), and being able to make an estimated $105 million in annual debt payments to repay the bonds.

If ever there was a ferociously fishy foregone conclusion, it's Florida Development Finance Corp.'s impending decision to approve $1.75 billion in tax-exempt, private activity bonds so All Aboard Florida can get funding. FDC has already gleefully included its share in its draft budget for the current fiscal year. Check out the $1.8 million under "pending revenue." (All Aboard Florida on June 19 received a six-month extension to sell the tax-exempt bonds.)

FLORIDA DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2015

1:00PM – 6:00PM EST

AGENDA

I. Call to Order; Declaration of Quorum (Chair)

II. Sunshine Notice (Bill Spivey)

III. Current Business (Chair)

A. All Aboard Florida - Operations LLC

1. All Aboard Florida Presentation (40 minute time limit)

An attorney fighting the All Aboard Florida project is taking aim at a series of text messages between a representative of the rail company and the chairman of the state board that will decide whether the project receives $1.75 billion in tax exempt bonds.