By Bob Walsh
The latest in a set of failure
reports on the laughingly misnamed High-Speed Rail Authority has just
come out. The original estimated cost of roughly $20 billion has
ballooned to over $120 billion. It is running years late. The
estimated cost of for the first leg, from Merced to Bakersfield, has
jumped from $22 billion last year to $35 billion this year. (Just what
California needs, a high speed train from Merced to Bakersfield, that
isn't really a high speed train anyway.)
The
state's commitment to the project ends in 2030, if the plug isn't
pulled sooner via court action. That is when the state's appropriation
bill expires for this boondoggle.
The
small number of actual Republicans in the state legislature have a
voice, but no real power. The Democrat-Socialists have a large majority
in both houses and most years a super-majority and all of the
constitutional offices.
The
High-Speed Rail Authority was enacted by as ballot initiative. There
were performance criteria built into the ballot initiative. The project
has not met one of those criteria. Not one. A couple of years back
this continual failure attracted a lawsuit. The courts kicked in on the
basis that the project was not so completely and irredeemably fucked
that it was unsalvageable. I think they were wrong, but they don't care
what I think.
In reality
it is a union construction jobs project and a feel-good project for the
hard-core greenies. It has now turned into a very, very expensive
failure but as all thinking people know failure does not distract
liberals from their purpose. The virtue signaling is what is
important. Actual results are immaterial.
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