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A special lawmaking session over high-speed and commuter rail inched closer Monday as legislative leaders and the governor said they were ready to tap surplus money discovered in the transportation budget rather than raise taxes on rental cars.

 

The surplus money -- about $76 million for the current and next budget years -- should be enough to help fill a hole in South Florida's Tri-Rail system.

 

Also Monday, opposition to Central Florida's SunRail project started to thaw in the Florida Senate, where the transit system could now be one vote shy of winning passage, according to a Herald/Times vote count.

 

Among the switched votes: Democratic leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee and Republican Steve Wise of Jacksonville. Newly elected Sen. John Thrasher, who was a chief lobbyist for SunRail last year, replaced SunRail opponent Jim King. And Tony Hill, D-Tallahassee, missed the vote last year but said he was "leaning toward'' voting in favor of the rail package.

 

Federal transportation officials have told Florida officials that the state needs to do a better job supporting Tri-Rail and SunRail to have a better chance at winning up to $2.5 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail project.

 

The federal government has been besieged with requests from various states for high-speed rail money. And U.S. Department of Transportation spokespeople said Florida's support for the commuter rail systems are just a "factor'' in awarding the grant, which is not "contingent'' on Tri-Rail and SunRail.

 

Still, legislative leaders and Gov. Charlie Crist say the state needs to do more.

 

Crist said last week that he wanted to issue a call for a winter special session by Thanksgiving.

 

"I am anxious to do it," Crist said of calling a week-long session, noting lawmakers would already be in Tallahassee for a committee week in December. "They're going to be up there the week of the seventh anyway," Crist said. "It wouldn't cost us additional money to do it."

 

But despite Crist's optimism for a special session, he hasn't put much effort into persuading the rank-and-file legislators in the Florida Senate where the SunRail project has died for two years. Six Republican senators who voted against SunRail last year told the Herald/Times that neither Crist nor Senate President Jeff Atwater had called to lobby them for the project.

 

Crist noted that Senate and House leaders like the idea of using existing tax money to fund Tri-Rail.

 

The House balked at a proposal to raise rental car surcharges by $2. Last week, state economists bailed the Legislature out of its financing problem by estimating that the state would take in more fuel tax money than had been anticipated: $19 million more this budget year and $57 million next year.

 

Behind the scenes, rail proponents almost have a guaranteed 20 votes in favor of SunRail in the Senate. That's up 16 votes last spring. But it's one vote shy of securing passage in the 40-member chamber.

 

Many lawmakers are concerned with the longterm cost of SunRail -- up to $1.2 billion -- as well as the fact that the owner of the rail line, CSX, wanted the state to completely indemnify it in the case of an accident.

 

"You could have a CSX conductor high on crack cause a horrible accident and the people of Florida would have to pick up the tab," said Bradenton Republican Sen. Mike Bennett. "I'm all for rail. I love rail. But I hate bad business deals. And this is a bad business deal."

 

Florida's transportation secretary, Stephanie Kopelousos, said CSX is willing to renegotiate and has showed a willingness to pay up to $10 million in cases of "willful and wanton'' negligence. But nothing's in writing yet and it's unclear if that's enough to ease concerns in the Senate.