The North Hearing Room was the scene today of the meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board, a seven-member legislative oversight group that serves as a gate keeper for various capital improvement projects funded through the state.
- The North Hearing Room was the scene today of the meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board, a seven-member legislative oversight group that serves as a gate keeper for various capital improvement projects funded through the state.
- Jolene Molitoris, director of ODOT, was a no show at today's meeting, despite cheerleading the project from its inception. Molitoris instead sent several staff subordinates to field questions from Republican lawmakers who questioned virtually all aspects of the 255-mile, 39-mph average train that will run from Cincinnati to Cleveland via Dayton and Columbus along a route some say is the most densely populated area in the U.S without train service
- Democratic State Senator Ray Miller, in the foreground, said the 3C would product 255 immediate jobs and 8 thousand spin offs jobs over time. Miller applauded ODOT staffers for answering questions "as best you can" today.
- Jennifer Farmer, a new deputy director at ODOT as recently as mid March, said the project, despite needing a yearly subsidy of maybe as little as $17 million, would help to balance Ohio's budget over time. Farmer, adhering to the mantra of the day, said only by spending $25 million to do more study work on the 3C route would answers to questions asked both by Republican lawmakers and other skeptics who oppose the 3C be revealed.
- ODOT Deputy Director Mandy Kisling Bishop, seen here standing at the podium in the North Hearing room of the Ohio Statehouse, said the 3C would reduce the need for foreign oil and said the $400 million awarded to Ohio from Washington would be enough to build the project, especially as details from PB America's work be brought to bear on the project, which she implied could reduce costs.
- Matt Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, an independent commission dedicated to upgrading freight rail crossings to improve safety and reduce sound, told board members that the 3C was only intended to be a conventional speed project, and that it was as it was in order to "balance all interests," especially those of freight railroads on whose tracks the 3C will by necessity run.
- Rep. Jay Hottinger, see at the far end of the board, questioned costs for the 3C, the definition of capital improvement and said he thought the vote by the board today was illegal, and that either the courts of the state inspector general might weigh have a chance in the near future to weigh in on the debate. Hottinger asked Molitoris in a recent letter to 'slow down' the process and do the research needed for such an important decision.
- Newark Republican challenged the cost of the service and the legality of the vote. Hottiniger, a former two-term senator, said the court or the state inspector general may have a chance to weigh in on the debate over whether spending $25 million on planning is or is not a capital improvement expenditure. Gov. Strickland has claimed it is not a capital improvement and therefore not subject to a supermajority vote of the 7-member oversight board.
- Senate President Bill Harris, as recently as last week, sent a letter to Gov. Strickland urging him to take more time to study and research the 3C project so he and his colleagues who have questions on it can have their answers in full. Harris previously said starting the 3C could lead to 'fiscal instability' for the state.
- The Ohio HUB Plan, which 3C rail boosters point to as a plan that defines a larger Midwest rail system the 3C will be linked to, says that even if Ohio builds only a conventional speed train,the cost will still be about five billion dollars [in 2002 dollars]. Critics say the 3C is a slow train that won't attract many riders because travelers can travel faster by car and have more mobility in their destination city when they get there.
- Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, running for reelection this year against a challenger who is not a fan of the 3C, calls skeptics of the 3C "cheerleaders for failure" because they are not on-board his train plan whose costs and details have been as elusive and slippery as trying to contain mercury. Strickland has called the 3C an economic driver that will produce hundreds of jobs now and thousands in the future. Critics question where the jobs are.
- Rep. Clayton R. Luckie, a Democrat from Dayton, said of the 3C, In addition to bringing passenger rail to Ohio, this project will also significantly improve freight rail in Ohio. Upgrading our freight rail lines will improve our economy, strengthen our ability to transport goods and support the hundreds and thousands of jobs that are tied to the rail industry.
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