INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners Tuesday voted 5-0 to file a lawsuit intended to cut off government-backed funding of high-speed trains running through local communities.
The legal action, which County Attorney Dylan Reingold estimated would cost about $600,000 to pursue, mounts a challenge to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s approval of $1.75 billion in tax-exempt “private activity bonds” for the All Aboard Florida project.
“Based upon research conducted by outside counsel, the County Attorney’s Office believes there is sufficient legal basis for Indian River County — together with other entities such as the Indian River County Emergency Services District, various municipal governments and non-governmental organizations and also individuals opposed to All Aboard Florida (the ‘Project’) — to file suit to challenge the determination of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (‘DOT’) to allocate private activity bond authority for issuance of $1,750,000,000 of tax-exempt bonds for the project,” Reingold told the Board in a memo.
DOT approved the bonds on Dec. 22, before the Federal Rail Administration had completed assessing the impacts of the All Aboard Florida Project, a memo from Reingold to the Board states.
The money would come out of the $2.7 million that the county voted to spend over the next three years from general fund tax revenues.
Since the project’s parent company owns the tracks and the land under them, and has secured agreements with governments in Orlando and Brevard County for rights on the westward leg of the Miami to Orlando route, county officials and opponents of All Aboard Florida have argued that the only way to stop the train is to delay or block the funding needed to build it.
Reingold said he would work with attorneys retained by the Board to file the suit.
All Aboard Florida has taken notice of Indian River County, Reingold said, as the company has of Martin County, whose leaders also committed significant dollars to fight the project.
“They see us as a threat,” Reingold said, as evidenced by a massive public records request received by the County from All Aboard Florida’s legal team.
