Free Republic

A strong majority of voters is against the bullet train project just as Gov. Brown is pressuring the Legislature to green-light the start of construction, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll finds. Across the state, 55% of the voters want the bond issue that was approved in 2008 placed back on the ballot, and 59% say they now would vote against it. Since voters approved that $9-billion borrowing plan, the state and national economic outlook has dimmed and some of the promises about the bullet train have been compromised. 55% of the respondents said the state has bigger priorities than...

If it is built, California’s High-Speed Rail would be the largest public works project in state history. That fact alone appears be intoxicating to state officials, in a perpetual quest to have California be the first state to do anything. Despite the warnings of a nearly $100 billion ballooning price tag, no track laid, no trains running, decreasing legislative support and even opposition from diehard rail advocates, the High-Speed Rail Authority is steaming ahead full throttle with plans to build the most expensive high-speed rail system in history. But there is pushback coming from so many places that it must...

As California prepares to commit tens of billions of dollars to an ambitious high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Southern California, Congress' political will to provide the bulk of the funding is disappearing, leaving the possibility that the state could end up stuck with a crushing financial burden. State voters have agreed to issue more than $9 billion in bonds to build the system, but that's a fraction of the $43 billion projected tab for the initial phase. And those costs could swell to $65 billion or more, by some estimates. Should federal funds dry up after the scheduled...

THERE IS nothing that epitomizes California's dysfunctional government more than the state's pursuit of a high-speed rail fantasy that is headed for all-but-certain failure. The latest criticism of the rail scheme comes from the independent Legislative Analyst's Office, which strongly opposes Gov. Jerry Brown's request for an appropriation of $185 million to keep the project moving forward. It's past time for the state to do what it should have done more than a year ago -- cancel the project and stop wasting any more of the taxpayers' money. The High-Speed Rail Authority has bungled the project from the start with...

The state's plan to build a bullet train has become a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. We can do better. California's much-vaunted high-speed rail project is, to put it bluntly, a train wreck. Intended to demonstrate the state's commitment to sustainable, cutting-edge transportation systems, and to show that the U.S. can build rail networks as sophisticated as those in Europe and Asia, it is instead a monument to the ways poor planning, mismanagement and political interference can screw up major public works. For anti-government conservatives, it is also a...

Californians have a reputation for questioning authority. And increasingly, they appear to be questioning the High-Speed Rail Authority, which voters empowered in 2008 to issue $9.95 billion in bonds and build the nation’s largest such system. Opposition hasn’t reached critical mass — not yet. But it is broad, and it includes Republicans, some Democrats, community groups, local governments, fiscal conservatives, and neighborhood preservationists. Reports from respectable engineering and financial teams, including state agencies, paint a far gloomier picture than the happy-talk done deal that’s been portrayed in the national media. Lawsuits further complicate the picture. The more money California sponges...

Wasting no time after a victorious midterm election, GOP Congressional leaders who promised to slash spending are looking to make an example out of the nation's priciest public works project: California's $43 billion high-speed railroad. A coalition of 27 House Republicans, led by the ranking member of the committee that controls spending, wants to yank $2 billion in stimulus funds promised to California to kick start the massive project. U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, last week introduced the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Rescission Act," which would return the final $12 billion in unspent and uncommitted stimulus funds to the U.S....

A few days before this month's election, the federal government announced that California would receive an additional $715 million for its high-speed rail project, contingent on the money being spent quickly on a segment in the San Joaquin Valley. Why? You'd have to be terminally naive not to believe that the splashy announcement, made personally by an Obama administration official in Fresno, was to help an embattled local congressman, Democrat Jim Costa, stave off a very stiff Republican challenge. Costa, a longtime bullet train advocate, did, in fact, eke out a narrow re-election win. And last week, the California High-Speed...

Hailed as a high-speed road to the future, a jobs program and a symbol of America's dedication to innovation, President Obama proposed Monday spending $8 billion on a bullet train -- a down payment on a nationwide network that will cost $58 billion over the next six years. But in the one state where the federal high-speed rail project is underway, critics say money is being misspent, ridership studies are inflated, the route is politically corrupted and the system will never be self supporting. "They don't know where they're going to build it, they don't have a mile of right...

For the next minute, imagine yourself at a car dealership. You're strapped for cash but find a sleek new ride and ask the salesman for a deal. He quotes you a number that's four times what you have in the bank. And, he warns, even that price isn't fixed -- there's no guarantee you won't pay more in the end. What do you do? For California, the lure of its new ride -- a bullet train system capable of whisking passengers between the Bay Area and Los Angeles -- has proved so enticing that the state jumped at the deal,...

Reporting from Sacramento - California's high-speed rail commission, dominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees, is set to award a $9-million contract today to a company led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager. The three commission staff members charged with recommending a public relations firm have advised the board to give the contract to Mercury Public Affairs at its meeting today. Schwarzenegger strategist Adam Mendelsohn is a partner at Mercury, as is Steve Schmidt, who managed the governor's 2006 reelection effort. Two members of the staff panel are former Mendelsohn colleagues. Ethics watchdogs raised questions about...

A majority of Californians support the high-speed train project, with more than three-quarters saying they would like the project to be built, according to a survey commissioned by the project’s planners. Some 76 percent of Californians indicated support for the project, with 34 percent saying they would like to see the project move forward “as quickly as possible,” according to the survey’s findings released Tuesday. Forty-two percent said they would like to see the high-speed trains built despite some concerns over cost and timing and 13 percent were opposed to the project. “Californians are telling us loudly and clearly that...

Train companies and foreign governments that helped support the Holocaust could be barred from working on the California high-speed railroad under a new bill in the Legislature. The legislation would not exempt governments or companies such as France's bullet-train operator, whose locomotives once transported prisoners to concentration camps, from bidding for a piece of the state's $43 billion project starting next year. But it would allow the California High-Speed Rail Authority to disqualify any of those companies or governments based solely on their ties to World War II atrocities, specifically from 1942 to 1944. If contractors fail to provide evidence...

DeVore Slams Backroom Deals, Only Republican To Oppose Maldonado Confirmation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- (SACRAMENTO) – California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, (R-70-Irvine), today spoke out against the backroom deals involved in the effort to confirm state Senator Abel Maldonado as California’s Lieutenant Governor. He then voted against the motion to confirm Maldonado and urged other lawmakers to do the same. DeVore cited Maldonado’s vote for the higher taxes included in 2009’s Proposition 1A in exchange for an agreement by the Governor and Democrat leaders to place Proposition 14, the open primary measure that infringes upon the rights of partisan voters...

Those hoping to ride the state's high-speed train next decade will have to dig much deeper into their wallets than officials originally thought, a harsh reality that will chase away millions of passengers, according to an updated business plan released Monday. The average ticket on the bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now estimated to cost about $105, or 83 percent of comparable airfare. Last year, the state said prices would be set at 50 percent of comparable airfare and predicted a ticket from San Francisco to Los Angeles would cost $55. As a result of the...

Supporters collecting signatures in an effort to recall Republican Sen. Bob Huff fell short today... by about 65,535 names. Recall proponents had until Nov. 16 to turn in the 65,535 valid voter signatures from the 29th Senate District needed to spark a recall election. But, according to counts confirmed today by election officials in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, they turned in zero signatures

The battle over six budget-related measures on Tuesday's special election ballot has generated more than $31.5 million in campaign spending, split the state's labor community and created strange bedfellows on both sides. Supporters, aided by the powerful California Teachers Association and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's business allies, have raised more than $27.6 million to back Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F. Opponents, a collection of unions, anti-tax groups and supporters of children's and mental health programs, have raised $3.8 million. ... the California Federation of Teachers, a smaller rival to the California Teachers Association ... has chipped in more...

CORONA – Several thousand people turned out at a rally Saturday hosted by KFI's "The John and Ken Show" to protest proposed state tax increases. Show co-host Ken Chiampou said he and his co-host, John Kobylt, were giving the crowd an opportunity to voice its anger and opposition to six ballot propositions that, if passed, would raise taxes.

Millions of dollars have been raised to fight the linchpin of ballot measures in Tuesday's election, a package that was carefully crafted to discourage big-bucks opposition. Though vastly outspent, opponents of Proposition 1A have parlayed $4.3 million in contributions and anger at state politicians into a solid advantage in recent polls. The measure, stemming from this year's bitter budget fight, would place long-term spending restrictions on state government and extend recent tax increases for up to two years. Major donors to No on 1A, state records show, include the California State Council of Service Employees International Union, $1.3 million; California...

Nancy Pelosi is watching California's Prop 1A intently. In only a hundred days and change, President Barack Obama has committed $6.5 trillion to waste, fraud, and abuse. That’s $6,500,000,000,000.00, which is more than all the costs of World War I and World War II combined. And you think it can’t get worse? Believe me, it can. Things have gotten so bad, that even in my home state of California a Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is urging support for a massive $16 billion tax hike which is deceptively masquerading as a measure to put a lid on out-of-control government spending. You...