State: HRT officials kept true light rail cost 'secret' from feds

Virginian Pilot ^ | 12/14/10 | Debbie Messina

[Sursam Abordine]

NORFOLK

Months before signing legal documents assuring federal officials they could build light rail for $232 million, Hampton Roads Transit leaders knew it would actually cost tens of millions of dollars more, a new state investigation reveals.

In fact, HRT senior officials maintained a separate, internal accounting of light rail costs that was intentionally kept “secret” from government entities footing the bills, documents show.

[Sursam Abordine]

Many of us in the local area realized this was a boondoggle we could not afford when we voted down a referendum in 2003. But, no one listed and the City of Norfolk and Commonwealth went around us and okay'd the project anyway. Reap and sow!

[tgusa]

You bring the feathers, I’ll bring the tar ......

[driftdiver]

Isn’t that a crime?

[Sursam Abordine]

As was said in Jurasic Park...boy do I hate being right all the time.

Sad thing is no one will do the “perp” walk and the line will continue into Va Beach greatly increasing the cost. In my opinion, the project was so hard over to get into Va Beach to get additional Fed Funds to cover the shortfall.

[Sursam Abordine]

Only if you or I did it. They are better than us so its ok. s/

[oh8eleven]

You bring the feathers, I'll bring the tar .....
You got that right. These SOBs have no fear of reprisal as Mr. Jefferson once noted:

"When the people fear the government, that's tyranny; when the government fears the people, that's freedom."

[theDentist]

A much smaller version of Boston’s “Big Dig”. frauds aplenty.

[tgusa]

If the Virginian-Pilot/Red Star has any spine at all they will uncover and publish the names of ALL the perps. If it was the Governor they would be all over this. We’ll see what our local rag is made of now.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

This same type of boondoggle has been in the Orlando, FL area for decades. A light rail system is not supported by the voters, yet pushed through by the politicians. Even more sad, an area House Rep, John Mica, has been the big driver on the light rail issue....and he is usually quite conservative, even quite pro-America (voted “no” on NAFTA, CAFTA)....

This push for light-rail and public transportation is just part of a broader agenda to take privately owned transport from individuals....the car-grabbers. Before Al Gore was so into Global Warming Hoax...he was pushing the Car-Grabber agenda in his “Earth in the Balance” book.

[tgusa]

We can always vote them out BUT it’s easier to vote them out when they’re in the state pen.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

I think the same thing happened in Charlotte, NC. I can’t remember names or anything but it seems that there was a guy at the top of the rail project who knew it was going to cost millions more than first stated but when it came to light, it was too late to do anything about it. He had to stay on as he had headed the rail project from the get-go. If it had come to light how much it was going to actually cost, there would have been so much uproar that the rail may not have been approved.
Is this a pattern?

[VaFederalist]

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Lyle_Lanley

“You know, a town with money’s a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it!” Lyle Lanley