Put California bullet train audit on the fast track

OC Register ^ | Ed board

[198ml]

California’s high speed rail project is an embodiment of virtually everything wrong with state government.

Already $1.7 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule on the Central Valley portion alone, the bullet train reeks of cronyism, inefficient central planning, misplaced priorities and squandering of finite resources. Yet, it persists, despite obvious problems.

On Nov. 14, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, requested an emergency audit of the bullet train. The request came as high speed rail authorities reported that environmental reviews of the 800-mile project won’t be completed until at least 2020, two years later than planned.

Against a backdrop of significant delays and escalating costs, Patterson’s request sought to answer some fundamental questions about the project. Among the questions raised by Patterson: “What are the Authority’s demonstrable policies, practices, and personnel to generate reliable budget estimates for ongoing construction contracts?”

[HLPhat]

"Vote for the train. Keep the velocity of money rolling along."
--A. MarxBank Manager

{ uhh who'll pay for the train? }

"Asking who'll pay for the infrastructure is political.  Politics is not allowed on The Company intranet."
--A. MarxBank Manager

 

[BobL]

This is why Californians are so mad about losing their SALT deductions. The government there needs many, many, billions for useless projects and thus the need for sky-high state income taxes, coupled with sky-high state sales taxes, and what amounts to sky-high property taxes (low rates...but highly inflated home values).

So instead of fighting against these huge expenditures, people get mad at the Republicans who simply say that people living in Kansas should not be subsidizing this crap.

...and the really sad thing is that all they need is a lane or two on I-5 between LA and Sacramento and the need for this system would disappear, as buses deployed from various areas of LA to various areas of SF would be able to match the door-to-door times of any trains running between the cities.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This boondoggle is proceeding as designed. A cash cow for lawyers, environmental consultants, public employee unions, and democrats.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Why should we put money into a state for their use only when the are talking of secession ?

[Spok]

And how many years and millions will the audit take? It’s California; somebody’s always getting rich awhile the taxpayers are getting shafted. It’s a given.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Senator Boxer’s husband has the first multi billion dollar contract.

[roadcat]

Senator Boxer’s husband has the first multi billion dollar contract.

Don't you mean, Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband Richard Blum, who was "awarded" a near billion-dollar contract for the first phase of the high-speed rail project? Or is Boxer's family involved in shenanigans as well?

[roadcat]

Why should we put money into a state for their use only when the are talking of secession ?

Mere weeks after Gov. Jerry Moonbeam Brown made the announcement that California could build anything it wanted on its own (because of flak from the feds about declaring California a sanctuary state for illegals), Gov Brown went begging to the feds for a grant of hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the high-speed rail project alive. Stupid feds sent him the money.

Talk of giving sanctuary and defying federal authority, you'd think the federal government would turn off the money spigot, but no, they keep throwing money away for a doomed project.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good point - Feinstein.