By Bob Walsh
The
Sacramento PRAVDA (sometimes known as the BEE) had a good size article
in it today about whether or not the California High-Speed Rail
Authority will survive the next round of attacks on it. Gavin Newsom
LOVES it and therefore the CA legislature loves it. CA construction
unions LOVE it. Donald Trump, however, does NOT love it as he
recognizes it is a bottomless money pit. Since it gets a lot of it's
funding (or maybe GOT a lot of it's funding) from the feds that will
likely be significant.
A
federal oversight report two months back described it as a "Sisyphean
endeavor." That is not a good thing. As I type this about 119 miles of
track are under construction, between Shafter and Madera, or between
North Buttcrack and South Buttcrack depending on how you look at it.
The
project has made some dubious decisions. For instance I didn't know
that they spent $1 billion just to move the tracks so they wouldn't be
"too close" to the Cesar Chavez National Monument.
Right
now CA is about $14 billion in the hole to finish the central valley
section of the line. The project has been largely funding by the CA
cap-and-trade program, which basically sells pollution permits at
auction. They don't call it that, but that is what it is.
Theoretically this will guarantee the project $1 billion per year thru
2045, assuming Gavin Newsom gets his way. That might not happen.
SB445
will, if passed into law, IN THEORY streamline construction and
establish timelines and coordination. Of course the original, voter
approved proposition to build the thing in the first place did these
things. In theory. In practice NOT ONE of the benchmarks has ever been
met. Not one. I fail to see why they should be successful now.
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