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Californians To Try To Kill High-Speed Rail Project By Referendum
Hotair ^
| 09/26/2018
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 09/26/2018 12:09:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Remember that high-speed rail project that was going to bring California’s infrastructure into the 21st century? The last we really heard about it was back in April when an audit was scheduled to take stock of just how far in the hole they were and if it could ever be finished. Of course, that’s been the story of this project from the beginning. One delay after another compounded by flawed budget estimates and construction schedules. Mix in a bit of political incompetence and malfeasance and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
This running boondoggle has been dragging on for ages, creating a black pit of despair where Californians’ tax dollars go to die. But now that may be about to change. Fresh off their advances in attempting to recall the recent gas tax package, one group is now working on a referendum plan to stop the entire mess and redirect the money to fixing their roads. (LA Times)
Backers of a November initiative to repeal the gas-tax increase said Monday they will also ask voters to approve a measure in 2020 that would provide funds to fix roads without charging Californians more at the pump, and would halt the states $77-billion high-speed rail project.
The ballot measure was announced on the same day the campaign against Proposition 6 launched television ads saying the repeal will jeopardize funds needed to make California roads and bridges safe.
Supporters of the new initiative to be filed Tuesday say it addresses a criticism of Proposition 6 by Gov. Jerry Brown and others who warn that elimination of the higher gas tax and vehicle fees approved last year will leave the state billions of dollars short of what is needed to repair its deteriorating transportation network.
The debates over repealing the gas tax and the floundering bullet train have a significant intersection. As the Times reports, state representatives have recently suggested that some funds from the new gas taxes may eventually need to go into funding the rail project. None of these proposals are sitting well with the groups who feel that they’ve been overly taxed already with little to show for it. The total cost of the high-speed rail project had already doubled yet again from the 2013 projection of $33B to $77B. The completion date has already been stretched out to 2033 and nobody knows how high the total cost could go by then.
At the same time, the state needs an estimated $177B over the next ten years to try to bring their roads and bridges up to some reasonable measure of safety and repair. California’s state government currently has no idea where that money is going to come from unless they go back to the well yet again and raise taxes even more. This appears to be prompting some fiscal sanity among a growing number of residents who are pushing back against their liberal stronghold leadership.
Here’s one question to consider. Let’s just say that they manage to kill off the rail project. Several large sections of it, including raised platforms and trestles, have already been built. What happens to all of that construction? I’ve recently been watching a Science Channel show called Mysteries of the Abandoned. They investigate massive structures around the world which were once beehives of human activity but now sit silent, being slowly reclaimed by nature. What will the remnants of California’s high-speed rail project look like when they are overgorwn with shrubs and trees, providing habitat for birds or the occasional coyote?
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; gavinnewsom; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; highspeedrail; referendum; sacramento; sandiego; williegreenexpress
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To: SeekAndFind
California, takes a bullet train to the head...
2
posted on
09/26/2018 12:10:42 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 $215.71 from 50% increase in 1.2183 yrs)
To: SeekAndFind
Makes Boston’s Big Dig seem like childs’ play. Another Democrat insane boondoggle.
Taxifornia does NOT need this train to nowhere. Taxifornia does NOT have the money. But no business sanity applies...not with the insane government the state has. Just a BIG PAYBACK to unions. Unfunded make-work.
3
posted on
09/26/2018 12:13:55 PM PDT
by
EagleUSA
To: SeekAndFind
Does it include a line about impeaching Moonbeam?
4
posted on
09/26/2018 12:14:03 PM PDT
by
G Larry
(There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
To: SeekAndFind
They should carve Gov. Brown’s face on the abandoned ruins.
5
posted on
09/26/2018 12:15:18 PM PDT
by
cgbg
(Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
To: DoughtyOne
You need to copyright that.
6
posted on
09/26/2018 12:26:13 PM PDT
by
Sergio
(An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
To: SeekAndFind
I recently drove down Highway 99 and saw the overhanging trestles, tracks and platforms. Keep in mind this is a place where you can drive 75mph and go directly to your destination, not end up in a train station. I think the unfinished construction will remain there for years. Too expensive to demolish.
7
posted on
09/26/2018 12:27:07 PM PDT
by
rexthecat
To: rexthecat
I bet it will look even better once the scrappers start to pull every bit of metal and copper they can get off it.
8
posted on
09/26/2018 12:29:34 PM PDT
by
matt04
To: SeekAndFind
What will the remnants of Californias high-speed rail project look like when they are overgorwn with shrubs and trees, providing habitat for birds or the occasional coyote?
And Willie Green in a pup tent.
To: SeekAndFind
There is visible reinforced concrete construction next to freeway 99 just north of fresno. it consists of disconnected oversized bridges and raised railroad beds. the design seems similar to that of taiwan’s high speed rail.
10
posted on
09/26/2018 12:46:16 PM PDT
by
SteveH
To: SeekAndFind
They could throw Moonbeam in front of it ,oh wait it’ll never be built
To: DoughtyOne
Remember, the idiot voters here voted for this boondoggle. Choo - choos are so cool! And green! That this was not feasible for the numbers being talked about at the time was evident to anyone with half a brain.
12
posted on
09/26/2018 12:46:17 PM PDT
by
j.havenfarm
( 1,500 posts as of 8/10/18. A FReeper since 2000; never shutting up!)
To: j.havenfarm
Yes, they lied from the get-go what the cost was going to be.
I voted against it, but every bond put on the ballot passes (it seems).
Oh, a new bond? Wow something else we never have to pay for...
13
posted on
09/26/2018 12:48:46 PM PDT
by
DoughtyOne
(01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 $215.71 from 50% increase in 1.2183 yrs)
To: SeekAndFind
"rail project that was going to bring Californias infrastructure into the 21st century" translation:
… tagged with Mexican gang graffiti, garbage, slashed seats, and awash with robbery, and sexual assaults, all at speeds that will make your head swim. There is nothing that makes a robbery or sexual assault more palatable than being violated while zooming through the fertile Central Valley and beholding Nature's bounty in all its pastoral glory.
14
posted on
09/26/2018 12:58:37 PM PDT
by
Governor Dinwiddie
(I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!)
To: SeekAndFind
Heres one question to consider. Lets just say that they manage to kill off the rail project. Several large sections of it, including raised platforms and trestles, have already been built. What happens to all of that construction? Depends on if any Rail Road thinks the right of way and completed track would be a usefull addition to their system. If they think it would be usefull, the tracks would be completed, and fast freights would be the users.
15
posted on
09/26/2018 12:58:47 PM PDT
by
Fraxinus
(My opinion, worth what you paid.)
To: SeekAndFind
The question is, "Are there enough sane people in CA?"
16
posted on
09/26/2018 12:59:09 PM PDT
by
Right Wing Assault
(Kill-googl,TWITR,FACBK,NYT,WaPo,Hlywd,CNN,NFL,BLM,CAIR,Antifa,SPLC,ESPN,NPR,NBA)
To: Governor Dinwiddie
17
posted on
09/26/2018 1:00:08 PM PDT
by
gathersnomoss
(Grace and Dignity Will Win The Day)
To: SeekAndFind
Referendums qin California are worthless.
A judge will be paid chickenfeed and will declare the referendum somehow invalid.
It’s Califirnia where like Chicago, tere is no law preventing theft of public money
18
posted on
09/26/2018 1:03:06 PM PDT
by
bert
((KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Muller..... conspiracy to over throw the government)
To: SeekAndFind
Does the bullet train exceed the speed of poop stench?
19
posted on
09/26/2018 1:08:16 PM PDT
by
gathersnomoss
(Grace and Dignity Will Win The Day)
To: SeekAndFind
Does the bullet train exceed the speed of poop stench?
20
posted on
09/26/2018 1:08:24 PM PDT
by
gathersnomoss
(Grace and Dignity Will Win The Day)
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