{"id":267032,"date":"2026-05-11T19:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267032\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:40:08","slug":"speaker-says-florida-house-will-fund-tri-rail-senate-outlook-still-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267032\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker says Florida House will fund Tri-Rail; Senate outlook still unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaker Daniel Perez said Monday the Florida House of Representatives <\/a>would restore state funding seen as essential to keep the Tri-Rail <\/a>commuter rail system operating in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.<\/p>\n

But, Perez cautioned, he isn\u2019t sure the money will make it in the final state budget.<\/p>\n

He and other state legislators are returning to Tallahassee for a special session on the state budget beginning Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Perez, a Miami Republican, was asked about the issue at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon: \u201cAre you going to fund Tri-Rail?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House is going to do their part. And the House is going to fund the Tri-Rail,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

But, the final outcome isn\u2019t up to him, and he added a dose of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if the Senate is going to want to reciprocate that. So the real question is going to go to the senators, which I advise all of you to call. I don\u2019t know if the Senate will want to fund the Tri-Rail or not. The House will fund the Tri-Rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, who represents Palm Beach County, said the uncertainty raised by Perez is cause for concern.<\/p>\n

See also: Grandma stabbed 11 times on Mother\u2019s Day after grocery-hauling dispute, police say<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking that we were in better shape, but he scared me a little today with what he said,\u201d Berman said, adding that she was neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the ultimate outcome.<\/p>\n

The senator was in the audience for Perez\u2019s speech and he began his answer by acknowledging her presence. \u201cBerman, you\u2019re not gonna like this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"{p}Florida<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers advance funding plan to support Tri-Rail service, aiming to strengthen South Florida commuter rail operations and long-term transit stability. (WPEC)<\/p>\n

Berman said she has been working with Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper, a Republican from Pinellas and Pasco counties on the Gulf Coast, to make the case for Tri-Rail funding. She said she would continue to work with Hooper and also press the case with Senate President Ben Albritton \u201cto make sure that Tri-Rail is still on everybody\u2019s radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tri-Rail has support from lawmakers in both parties from the three South Florida counties. \u201cThose of us from the three counties are going to continue to advocate to make sure that it is in the Senate budget,\u201d Berman said.<\/p>\n

In the current state budget year, which began July 1, 2025, the state thrust the rail operation into financial uncertainty by slashing millions from its annual contribution to the rail system.<\/p>\n

See also: Wrong-way driver identified in deadly Florida Turnpike crash in Indian River County<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of contributing a statutory minimum of $42.1 million \u2014 and as much as $62 million annually as it has in the past \u2014 the state provided $15 million.<\/p>\n

The rail line tapped reserves to prop up its $150 million budget, which includes $4 million a year from each of the three counties and money from fares paid by riders.<\/p>\n

Tri-Rail executives have said if the state money isn\u2019t replaced, Tri-Rail would have to halt operations by July 2027. The system served more than 4.5 million passengers last year, the agency has said.<\/p>\n

Tri-Rail, operated by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, was founded in 1989 by the state as a traffic relief valve while Interstate 95 and Florida\u2019s Turnpike were being widened. It operates mainly west of Interstate 95.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaker Daniel Perez said Monday the Florida House of Representatives would restore state funding seen as essential to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-267032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}