Governor Rick Scott spanks Tri-Rail in his budget

In his proposed budget, Florida governor Rick Scott is bringing pain to Tri-Rail after it awarded a controversial $511 million contract to the highest bidder last week. Scott wants to withhold all state funding from Tri-Rail. Tri-Rail, formally known as as the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, awarded the contract after disqualifying all other bidders for submitting…

Tri-Rail’s suspicious $500+ million procurement

Why should residents of the Tampa Bay area care about a procurement by Tri-Rail, a transit agency in southeast Florida? Because $57 million of state funds annually go to fund Tri-Rail. The three counties in which Tri-Rail operates only kick in $4.7 million per year in total. Now there are questions about a major procurement…

The Crossbay ferry – a path or a bath?

The heavily taxpayer-subsidized Tampa Bay “Crossbay Ferry” pilot project is currently on track to attract approximately 27,000 paying passengers in total during its six-month pilot. Whether the project is a path forward, or a bath for the taxpayers, that we will leave to our readers to decide. Through a public records request to the City of St. Petersburg,…