By Bob Walsh
California’s Governor Brown’s legacy project (other than flushing tens of thousands of convicted felons from the state prison system) is the so-called High Speed Rail project.
This grotesque $68 billion debacle was approved by voters as Proposition 1A in 2008, when the financial situation was much better, with some very serious and strong strings attached.
Kings County and a number of large land owners in the way of Jerry’s pet project sued to stop it, alleging that it is currently in violation of the requirements of the proposition. The California Supreme Court decided today that, despite legitimate concerns that the state was following the requirements of voters, the project could go ahead, for now, because it has not turned to shit completely yet. Really.
The plaintiffs argued, among other things, that there is a century of requirement that government follow the dictates of voter approved propositions CLOSELY. Thus far the state has only identified $6 billion of the needed $26 billion in funding for the current 130 mile leg of the project.
The refusal of the Supreme Court to act in this case is only ½ of the current issue. There is still a matter pending asserting that the performance requirements of the system, which are written into the law, are unachievable. The HSR authority has already all but admitted this to be true.
In addition there is an attempt under way to completely shut down the whole project via ballot initiative and turn the money over to water storage project. With the current drought and water emergency, the voters might decide they want available, cheap water more than they want a semi-fast train from Butthole to South Butthole in the central valley.
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