High Cost Rail – Part 43 On the Money

January 18, 2011

I've been waiting for the SF Examiner to post this letter to the editor from the Sunday edition so I wouldn't have to retype it, but alas they aren't going to do it, so here goes:

Gov. Jerry Brown won't hoodwink California voters to approve any new taxes or to extend existing taxes that expire soon, until he stops all new California debt-fund 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 higher-education funds at UC, community colleges and Cal State, plus Medi-Cal, welfare, and non-union worker pay, while somehow finding $9.95 billion available for more borrowing to fund a high-speed rail construction project that is estimated by respected experts to cost $213 billion before completion.

The taxpayer dollars required to pay just the interest on new high-speed rail bonds (not including principal) will bankrupt California at a time when cities could soon be forced into bankruptcy due to Brown saddling them with more responsiblities, but less taxpayer funds.

Mike Brown

Burlingame

We will see what the B'game city council does tonight in its closed sesson regarding possible legal action, but the die is cast in either case–if the shovel hits the dirt the s^%$ will have hit the fan.

Posted in High Speed Rail

One response to “High Cost Rail – Part 43 On the Money”

jennifer

January 19, 2011

MATIER AND ROSS, SF Chron. Jan. 19, 2011
China connection: Even before Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Washington for a visit with President Obama, a Chinese delegation toured the Central Valley over the weekend with an eye toward competing to develop the state’s high-speed rail line.
Representatives from China’s Ministry of Railways and China Railway Construction Corp. visited Fresno with Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, one of the $43 billion project’s strongest advocates in the Legislature.
Also in the group was Jeffrey Chang, a San Francisco lawyer working for Prometheus Investment Group, which is hoping to partner up with the Chinese on the high-speed rail deal.
The company’s co-founder is Alexis Wong, a San Francisco housing developer who spends most of her time these days in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Wong also happens to be a longtime supporter and close friend of Ma.
Ma insists she isn’t playing favorites in the rail competition, and expects at least four teams – representing France, Germany, Japan and China – to be in the running when the bid process gets going in earnest later this year.
“I am not involved in any way with the High-Speed Rail Authority’s contracting proposals,” Ma said. “I’m just like a PR spokesperson to keep high-speed rail on track.”
Her push for the rail line is one reason Ma will be in Washington today at a State Department luncheon for China’s president, hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden.

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