Thank you, Mr. Brown. I'm waiting for the rest of California to wake up to the realities
of this project and it's devastating costs to the state. Most people still believe that it will be built
with "free" money from Washington, and bond money from California.
They don't get it that bonds are like mortgages, borrowed money that demands interest payments and a return of the principal; that every dollar spent on this train will cost state taxpayers two dollars.
Also, most people don't understand that if the project actually begins construction, it will be far harder to stop. Where will the funds to continue this project come from? Private investors? When ridership projections make it clear that this would be a deficit operation that will cost the state dearly and forever? When there are no investment guarantees or securitization? I don't think so.
The federal government? Federal stimulus funding days are pretty much over. Belt tightening is now high on the Washington priority list. Watch what is happening to the Transportation budget.
Then where? In which case, wouldn't it be smarter to not start HSR construction at all? And if that's the case, why should the engineering design and CEQA work continue and be paid for with tax dollars? For that matter, if construction does commence in the Central Valley, why isn't all the design and engineering work for all the other segments of the system being suspended?
The answer to these rhetorical questions is that the CHSRA is a money pipeline with not anyone's hands on the off-valve. Where are our elected officials and their responsibility to the taxpayers and voters of California? Making sure they get elected during the next election cycle.
Disgust with politicians and their willful, self-serving agendas? What do you think?
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/47802
Published Wednesday, January 12, 2011, by the Palo Alto Daily News
Letters to the Editor
Kill the high-speed rail boondoggle
Gov. Brown shouldn't hoodwink California voters to approve any new taxes
or extend existing taxes until he stops all new borrowing to pay for wasteful,
billion-dollar, union-backed pet projects, epitomized by the California
high-speed rail boondoggle.
It is laughable that Brown wants to severely cut billions in necessary education funds, Medi-Cal, welfare and non-union worker pay while somehow finding $9.95 billion to fund a new high-speed rail construction project estimated by respected experts to cost $213 billion by completion.
The taxpayer dollars required to pay just the interest on new high-speed rail will bankrupt California at a time when cities will soon be forced into bankruptcy due to Brown saddling them with more responsibilities but less taxpayer funds. Governor, if you want "new taxes" approved or extended, kill the high-speed rail boondoggle first.
Get serious.
Mike Brown
Burlingame
