Guest column: 'Rail Act' is simply anti-growth NIMBYism

By: Michael Reininger, Treasure Coast Newspapers

The “Rail Safety" bill being sponsored by state Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, should be viewed for what it is: the latest installment of a strategy of roadblocks designed to delay and drive up the cost of All Aboard Florida in hopes of breaking the company. Only in this chapter, clever opponents of the project are attempting to deceive legislators into taking a poison pill that will kill the future of passenger rail in Florida.

It is unconstitutional for a legislature to target a bill against a single company, so Mayfield’s bill attempts to place a thin veil over “all railroads" ... that happen to look and act EXACTLY like All Aboard Florida. The veil is so thin that while testifying to the Senate Transportation Committee, Mayfield repeatedly referred directly to All Aboard Florida when speaking about SB 386. She had to catch herself to fall back to the more scripted “any high-speed rail company.”…