State of California is broke

And, if cities in liberal California do this, and get away with it, it will make it far easier for cities across the country to do it.

How are you going to demonize them as "anti-labor" if everyone is doing it?

 

When the California libs have lost TigerVols, they've lost California.

 

California has had an interesting and potentially devastating week in state politics.

--Last Friday, the statehouse voted to authorize the first $5 billion in spending for the high speed rail project, whose official cost projections have grown from $34 billion to $68 billion since voters approved it and whose cost according to independent estimates is more like $98 billion. Voters hate this project now. HATE it. And even some of the people who crafted the initial plan vote against it. But it passed by one vote. No Republican voted for it and a few Dems also voted no.

If you want to look it up on a map, this first $5 billion is going to go toward a line between Madera and Bakersfield. Now that's movin'!

--the governor is pushing a tax increase on the rich and potentially a sales tax increase to pay current bills. We already have just about the highest rates in the nation on these. If his tax doesn't pass, he is threatening to close schools three weeks earlier, and the UC system is threatening a 20 percent tuition increase.

--The tax increase isn't going to pass, mostly because of this high speed rail bullshit and partly because of pensions too.

--So basically our legislature, because they can't give up on the rail idea that they've been lobbied so hard about (including with great influence from the White House), is sacrificing education.

I think I'm going Republican in statewide elections. Or I should say, I am going with whoever is going to kill this fucking rail project and get pension costs in order. And that won't be the Democrats.

 

But hey, that $69 billion bullet train is set to go.

And when I say $69 billion, that is today's figure. It will be half a trillion by the time its running in 2027.


edit - LTL beat me to it. We may argue over swimming, but not the pisspoor way this state is run.

 

Oh yeah, that's the other thing, the start date has indeed been moved back 10 years (at some point in the last four years).

 

I nearly started a thread on this when they voted for it.

The odds one foot of track ever gets laid are low. But, even if they build these few miles, in the middle of nowhere, they'll never complete it.

It's a total waste of money.

Meanwhile, aren't they also building terminals in LA and San Francisco?

Will some Dems lose their seats because of their vote?

 

Wait, they're building terminals now for a rail project that won't begin for a decade? Really?

 

Heard it mentioned on talk radio, but haven't looked it up.

I believe the idea was that if they built the terminals, it would add pressure to complete the rail line.

 

Have you ever been to San Berdoo? It likely was fine when the steel mill was running in Fontana (?) and the military base was open, but it was pretty much a hellhole when I lived there in 2005-06. Lot of public assistance.

 

No new terminals are being built anytime soon. None.

In fact, thanks to expected lawsuits from Central Valley farmers, nothing's going to happen anytime soon, period.

With the possible exception of the Metrolink tracks in OC, LA, and SF being converted to electricity.

That said, I'm also against the bullet train.

BTW, did anyone notice the story over the weekend about the French TGV authority volunteering to consult on the project, only to be told to take a hike? An expert was quoted as saying, "It's like California has decided they want a 747, but instead of buying it from Boeing, they are going to built it themselves."

 

The wonderful irony is that it will be environmental lawsuits, centering on endangered species, that will kill the train.