Gavin Newsom’s train to nowhere a gravy train for – Latest News
In 2008, California voters took a leap of religion and authorized the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, which promised to join Los Angeles to San Francisco by 2020.
The project was marketed as a approach to cut back site visitors, cut emissions and create jobs.
Nearly twenty years later, tens of billions in taxpayer {dollars} have been spent to ship subsequent to nothing — besides, maybe, for largesse to consultants.
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As of now, the project has solely partially accomplished a part — with none monitor as of but — between Bakersfield and Merced, with an estimated operational date of 2031.
What started as an modern imaginative and prescient for the longer term with an immense price tag of $33 billion has utterly derailed, with present estimates placing the price between $126 billion and $231 billion.
Despite billions of {dollars} in funding from each the state and federal governments, the California HSR has managed to lay precisely zero high-speed tracks. The large increase in price and lack of any significant progress has left taxpayers questioning: Where did the money go?
Despite billions of {dollars} in funding from each the state and federal governments, the California HSR has managed to lay precisely zero high-speed tracks. AP
As The California Post reported: According to a new report from the Office of Inspector General, High-Speed Rail (OIG), not less than some of that money went to paying for project consultants’ lavish dwelling.
Meanwhile, the boondoggle’s working out of money, the scope of the project continues to shrink and deliberate modifications to the route face recent legal challenges. It’s a mess.
Against this backdrop, the OIG this month recognized about $680,000 of reimbursements for doubtful and/or “unallowable” journey for HSR consultants.
Even more disturbing, this sketchy journey included journeys to cigar lounges, nightclubs, gyms, escape rooms and different “questionable” places. According to the report, one advisor was even reimbursed with out query for premium rideshare companies to a nightclub between the hours of 9:40 p.m. and a couple of:30 a.m.
This investigation proves that the California High-Speed Rail Authority does know how to operate effectively in not less than one space, usually making these funds with out further review relating to the legitimacy, a lot much less the need, of the bills.
Most disturbing of all, earlier this 12 months, Sacramento politicians tried to forestall experiences like this from being launched to the public if these experiences have been deemed to pose an “articulable risk to the project.”
That’s merely galling.
The large increase in price and lack of any significant progress has left taxpayers questioning: Where did the money go? Reuters
AB 1608 would have made experiences, similar to this one from the OIG, confidential. I vehemently opposed this laws, which was ultimately amended to remove all references to confidentiality on experiences from the OIG.
The newest OIG report demonstrates what many have identified for years: The California high-speed rail project is a mess of mismanagement, overspending and waste of public funds.
While the governor and Sacramento’s Democratic supermajority funnel billions of {dollars} into this project, Californians proceed to face challenges of their each day lives that demand speedy consideration.
Our state nonetheless faces one of the best prices of dwelling within the nation, with fuel prices hitting $1.65 more than the national average. And but, Sacramento continues to spend on misguided insurance policies quite than offering the tangible reduction that Californians deserve.
Rather than pouring billions more into this failed train to nowhere, the rail authority’s Board of Directors wants to step up on behalf of the people of California and halt present spending — not less than till enough financial guardrails are established to rein in nonessential outlays.
This high-speed-rail fail is barreling towards financial catastrophe. We should hit the brakes.
I’m calling on the governor to make the correct resolution and cancel all future funding for the high-speed rail. If he refuses to cancel this project, the boondoggle will nearly actually proceed unchecked, to the delight of self-serving, fun-loving, extremely compensated consultants.
Diane Dixon, a Republican, represents a portion of Orange County within the 72nd District of the California Assembly.
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