CA Governor, Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown Continues to Push his Pet Delusion of a State High Speed Rail System

By  Rob Janicki

California has been playing fiscal roulette for years juggling the state budget time and again by robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Brown has already pulled back state funds from counties and cities destined for urban renewal.  

Apparently urban renewal, once a rallying cry for liberals, no longer carries the importance once claimed by liberals.  Now liberals have turned to building a train to nowhere.

The California high speed rail project is supposed to eventually reach from San Francisco/Sacramento to Los Angeles.  The first phase is supposed to go between Fresno and Bakersfield, hence the pejorative term, the train to nowhere.

As a resident of the Socialist State of California, I don't know of anyone who believes this project is anything but a political boondoggle.  Studies have been done which indicate that the final cost of this project will be well over $100 billion dollars, a considerable cost overrun.  

Who will pay for this cost overrun?  The taxpayers of California can't afford it and the U.S. Congress, about to be controlled by Republicans, will not come to the aid of California.  

Still further studies have indicated that the project would never pay for itself even when completed and would be a continuing cost burden on taxpayers forever.  

Meanwhile, Jerry Brown, forever the liberal progressive cheerleader for his legacy project, believes the federal government will continue to participate with funding.  Apparently Brown in not listening to the Republicans in his own state caucus.

Gov. Jerry Brown played down concerns Thursday about Republicans killing the state’s $68-billion bullet train, saying that “they’re going to join the chorus” in support of high-speed rail once construction around Fresno and Bakersfield gains momentum.

Republicans in Congress, most notably House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is from Bakersfield, have vowed to block any further federal spending on the rail network to link Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Republicans’ capture of a U.S. Senate majority in Tuesday’s election could make it more difficult for Brown to win further support from Washington for a project that would be a major legacy for the Democratic governor. So far, the federal government has provided $3.2 billion in grants to get the project started.   Continue Reading LATimes