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August 2015

ALL ABOARD PROMISES BIG IMPACT, BUT WILL IT DELIVER?

The promised financial impact of the All Aboard Florida train is large: $6.4 billion infused into the state's economy by 2023, $2.4 billion in pay, benefits and taxes for labor through 2021 and 10,000 construction jobs each year through 2017.

But how real are those numbers, which are coming from a report commissioned by the Coral Gables-based train company?

Economic impact studies are "layer cakes of uncertainty," said Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida who has authored a few of his own.

WHERE MARTIN COUNTY STANDS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ALL ABOARD FLORIDA

On August 4, 2015, hours before the Florida Development Financial Corporation’s decision to issue the tax free bonds regarding the All Aboard Florida (AAF) passenger rail project, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). However, Martin County believes the claim that the document is “final” is not actually true in several respects and needs public examination. 

LETTER FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE PATRICK MURPHY TO FLORIDA SECRETARY OF COMMERCE PRESIDENT AND CEO, BILL JOHNSON

Dear Mr. Johnson:

I write regarding the proposed All Aboard Florida (AAF) passenger rail project and its efforts to finance the project using Private Activity Bonds through Florida Development Finance Corporation (FDFC). As the elected representative of Florida's Eighteenth Congressional District, I am deeply concerned about the project's impact on my district and the Treasure Coast.

TRAIN-LOAD OF QUESTIONS ABOUT A TRAIN

If you’ve got some extra cash lying around, here’s an idea:

Sink all your hard-earned dollars into tax-free bonds for All Aboard Florida, the high-speed passenger train service that will supposedly run between downtown Miami and the Orlando airport.

Or, for the same return on your investment, take all your cash, dump it in a bucket and light it on fire.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONCERNED WITH TRAIN PROJECT'S IMPACT

Pieces of the past that are hundreds of years old could derail one of Florida's big future projects.

Archaeologists said the high-speed All Aboard Florida rail would run through one of South Florida's most historic areas.

Archaeologists have known for decades the remains of a large village are protected underground right along train tracks in Miami, so they were shocked to see railroad crews conducting an unsupervised project, laying a fiber optic line right through an extremely sensitive area.

MARKETPLACE IS FINAL HOPE OF TREASURE COAST RESIDENTS TO STOP ALL ABOARD FLORIDA

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:

QUESTIONS ABOUT ALL ABOARD FLORIDA NEED TO BE ANSWERED

A recent column by Canaveral Port Authority Treasurer and Secretary Tom Weinberg highlights many of the potential benefits of the All Aboard Florida rail project. After reading the column, the reader is left to believe that the project will provide many solutions to transportation challenges in our region.

ALL ABOARD FLORIDA BONDS INVOLVE "HIGH DEGREE OF RISK"

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.

CORRUPTION, LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND COLLUSION BETWEEN THE FDFC AND ALL ABOARD FLORIDA

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.)

AUGUST 5TH FDFC BOARD MEETING AGENDA

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)