But Newsom may also have been desperate to stop a voter initiative being circulated by Reform California to divert high-speed rail’s billions of dollars in annual taxes and fees to local government to rehabilitate the state’s crumbling highway system.
Unions officials and their contractor fellow travelers are howling that the initiative is shortsighted and would ultimately hurt California residents.
Anti-tax crusader and Reform California chairman Carl DeMaio blasted Newsom’s speech as an effort to fool voters into believing the high-speed boondoggle was dead. Here’s what he wrote:
“Make no mistake about it: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement today is not about killing the wasteful High-Speed Rail Project, it is about keeping it very much alive. Newsom wants to spend tens of billions on a rail line between Merced and Bakersfield — a complete waste. Once this segment is done, politicians will argue that no one is riding this route because it doesn’t travel far enough and voila: the entire project will continue.”
Reform California expects to easily gather the 586,000 signatures by May to qualify for the 2020 statewide ballot and let voters finally end California’s high-speed rail fantasies.
he screwed the feds (us)
I say we screw him back.. deduct the amount from any future “payments” from fedgov until paid back.
How many “Green” Energy companies with ties to Democrats managed to get Federal aid, grants and loans only to go bankrupt. This is no different.
Do you see the pattern here?
The Democrats have perfected the use of “Climate Change” to transfer public money into private pockets.
As I understand it, Dianne Feinstein’s husband made huge amounts of money on this farce. I don’t know the details.
A lot of Rats stuffed their pockets. As usual.
The U.S. doesn't have the population density of Europe or Japan, and we are too far out. Trains only make sense in urban areas.
A better idea for CA would be to expand charter and helicopter flights within the state while creating a new state highway system.
Two relatively small segments of CA's population and one that doesn't offset with any kind of revenue stream in return. Even worse, to the extent all of us pay transportation taxes in one form or another, we get to pay for this. Voters in CA need to stop putting idiots in office.
Rat money laundering.
That’s what criminals do...steal. And yet, they still walk free.
The California Govenor needs to be charged with defrauding the Federal Government.
Lefties are obsessed with trains for public transit, but they are only efficient when well built and well run in specific circumstances. The rest of the time they are unbelievably wasteful boondoggles. Busses are typically much more efficient in the West but when the government gets involved even bus lines turn into a giant waste of funds.
How many BILLIONS have already been spent-—that could have been spent to build the barrier at the border???
How many dollars of what has already been spent/allocated are FEDERAL dollars.???
The New Great Train Robbery.
An elevated bike and jogging path?
Something big for latin grafitti artists?
Robbery is what democrats master in before entering office.