Rick Scott deep-sixes Florida high-speed rail

Feb 19th 2011, 21:48 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

RICK SCOTT, the newly elected Republican governor of Florida, made national headlines this week when he announced plans to reject $2.4 billion in federal money intended for the construction of a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando.

Mr Scott worries about cost overruns and long-term operating costs. Those are legitimate concerns. But in the short run, the governor's decision probably wasn't the best for Florida's economy—the federal money would bring spending and jobs to the state. So it's unsurprising that other Sunshine State politicians, including Jeb Bush, the former governor and younger brother of former president George W. Bush, criticized Scott's actions.

If Florida rejects the money for the Tampa-Orlando project, it will almost certainly be used in other states. (Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has already sent President Obama a letter saying his state would be happy to take the money.) Ray LaHood, the Obama administration's transportation secretary and a former Republican congressman, has said Florida has until February 25 to change its mind before the money gets reassigned.

High-speed rail supporters around Florida are working to get Scott to reconsider. A veto-proof majority of the state Senatesent Mr LaHood a letter on Friday urging him to give the money to Florida despite Mr Scott's objections. "This is like holding a gun to our heads and telling the federal government: Don’t give us this money or we’ll blow our brains out," Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, told the St. Petersburg Times.

Gulliver is skeptical of Mr Scott's motives for rejecting the rail money. The governor says the rail line, which he calls a "boondoggle," wouldn't have as high of a ridership as currently projected—citing a study from the Reason Foundation. But even Republicans in Florida have attacked that study as "inaccurate."

Mr Scott could have some deeply held, high-minded policy objection to the Tampa-Orlando line. But it seems a lot more likely that he is simply following the lead of other newly elected Republican governors around the country. Ohio's John Kasich and Wisconsin's Scott Walker dramatically raised their national profiles by sticking a thumb in the eye of the Obama administration and rejecting rail money targeted for their states. So far, Mr Scott's move seems to be earning him the same kind of press—and the same sort of credibility with the GOP's conservative base. Now some in the mediaare even talking about Mr Scott as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. That could be just what the governor wanted out of this.

All that said, the Tampa-Orlando project has serious flaws that Gulliver has noted before. There were no plans to connect the project to the new SunRail system, for example. Moreover, researchers at the think tank America 2050 have found that city pairs that are less than 100 miles apart "are better-suited for auto and commuter rail networks" than for high-speed rail. Tampa and Orlando are 85 miles apart. There are plenty of places the money could be better-spent.

Mr Scott's rejection of the rail money might end up being bad for Florida, which could probably use the boost to its economy. But those 2.4 billion dollars will probably end up being put to better use in Maryland or New York or Connecticut or California anyway. Why worry about scrapping high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando when you can have it between Washington or Boston or San Francisco and Los Angeles instead?