Another potential victim of Florida’s budgetary cut is Tri-Rail, the commuter rail service to and from Miami Dade to Palm Beach counties. There is a possibility that there could be a cut in the subsidies paid by each of the three counties to support the train service. Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons has drafted a proposal requiring each of the three counties (Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade) to continue their $4.3 million subsidy to the railway and the state to continue its $13 million match. However, that proposal is threatened by one from Palm Beach County Administrator who has recommended that next year’s subsidy be cut to the minimum of $1.56. Tri-Rail officials fear that if Palm Beach County cuts their subsidy the other two counties will follow.

The officials are also in fear of losing out on a potential $42 million annual revenue source. The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority which operates Tri-Rail is seeking support of a bill in the Florida Legislature that would direct the proceeds from a $2 rental-car fee, estimated at $42 million annually to the railway. However, the Florida Department of Transportation that currently receives this revenue wants to keep it to finance road projects within the state. This bill is unanimously supported by two House committees, but has not been heard by the Senate as yet. The Broward and Miami-Dade county commissions also support the bill, while the Palm Beach commission has suggested a compromise that would keep the road building projects on stream.

Three hundred and thirty-two immigrants from 15 different countries including Haiti, Suriname and Honduras were arrested during an enforcement operation carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Florida during a two-week period. Those arrested were accused of evading deportation and violating other immigration laws.

According to reports the arrests could be the largest enforcement taken in Florida since ICE was created in March 2003 when the functions of the U.S. Immigration and natural Service and the U.S. Customs Service were integrated into the Department of Homeland Security. Typically, ICE operations in Florida would arrest 50 to 100 immigrants during an enforcement activity. Deportation officers arrested 147 immigration violators in Miami-Dade, 104 in Broward County and 81 in Palm Beach. In August 2007, 187 undocumented immigrants were arrested in Miami Tampa and Orlando.

A Jamaican woman whose name has been withheld to protect her identity was sexually violated last September by a former U.S. immigration agent. The agent, Wilfredo Vasquez of Tamarac, who was fired when the incident was first reported, pleaded guilty last week to having had sex with the woman at his home while transferring her from the Krome Detention Center in West Miami Dade to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach on September 21, 2007.

The woman had been living in the U.S. for 12 years and is the mother of a daughter and a son. She was being transferred by the accused after having served a short term at Krome in connection with a false claim to being a U.S. Citizen. She was to be placed in deportation proceedings at Pompano Beach. According to reports Vasquez first denied the rape allegations and denied that he had taken the woman to his house. However records from Florida’s Turnpike Sunpass System showed that the vehicle being driven by Vasquez did leave the turnpike at the Commercial Blvd., ramp near his home, and that the victim was able to describe the interior of his home, along with details of the sexual encounter.

A Florida business lobby is seeking a revision in the recently approved proposal by the Taxation and Budget Commission that is slated to go on the November 4 general election ballot in Florida, as a constitutional amendment.

If approved the amendment would result in a significant reduction, estimated at 25 percent (or $9.3 billion) in property taxes, to be compensated by a one-cent increase in the state’s sales tax which would bring in an estimated $4.5 billion. However, the sales tax revenue would still leave a huge gap of some $5 billion in the revenue, which could impact the state’s financial support to its schools.