This just in: Another article today from Dan Walters. Scroll down to see the earlier one we posted this morning.
Here he cites that as a follow-up to the Legislative Analyst's Office report, the CHSRA Peer Review Committee, headed by Will Kempton, has also found continued problems with the work-in-progress of the rail authority. Walters calls it a "double-whammy."
We should be totalling up the number of "whammies" that the rail authority has received and ask how many more they are allowed before they are asked to do the perp. walk to the courtroom.
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High-speed rail project gets another critique
Posted at 11:10 AM on Wednesday, May. 11, 2011
By Dan Walters /
The Sacramento Bee -
dwalters@sacbee.com
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It's a double-whammy for California's high-speed rail project.
On Tuesday, the Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, released a sharply critical report of the California High-Speed Rail Authority's efforts to build a bullet train system linking the northern and southern halves of the state.
Today, the chairman of a "peer review" committee that also reviewed the project is due to air many of the same criticisms to a special state Senate committee that's overlooking the project.
Will Kempton, a former state transportation director who now heads the Orange County Transportation Authority, told the Legislature in a letter last week that while he and other members of the peer review team see some improvements in the HSRA's operations, there are still many shortcomings.
The letter cites the authority's lack of staff to oversee dozens of consulting contracts and unanswered questions about costs, public and private financing, the extent of taxpayers' exposure and ridership projections, among other issues.
Voters approved a $9.95 billion bond issue to finance the state's share of the bullet train system, with the remainder to come from the federal government, local transit systems and private investors. But the costs of the system have been in flux. The current number for the first phase between Anaheim and San Francisco is $43 billion by Taylor and Kempton both contend that the real number is much higher.
State law also bars taxpayer-financed subsidies for bullet train operations but Kempton's team says it's unclear what that means.
The project was to be discussed by an Assembly budget committee this morning but the hearing was delayed so that legislators could digest Taylor's report. He recommended that the HSRA receive only token funds to continue its operations until several issues are ironed out.
