Let's not be too forgetful
By Phil Strickland | ∞
Apparently the way it's supposed to work is that by November we forget how poor we are.
As it stands right now, our school districts are busy cutting the heck out of their budgets so the leaky ol' boat we call the Ship of State ---- or as some say, the Ship of Fools ---- stays more or less afloat.
If our representatives conducted their private fiscal affairs with the same disregard they manage the public purse, they'd all be in bankruptcy court.
Instead, it's us giving back promised services and voting to spend money in sums that sadly no longer shock us.
Example: After we've railroaded our children's educational future to make up for our government's inability to mind its financial P's and Q's, we will be given the opportunity to go on yet another spending spree ---- a $10 billion bond for building high-speed rail service from San Diego to San Francisco.
Mind you, that's only about a quarter of the estimated $42 billion cost of Stage 1. Another $10 billion is said to be gathering dust in our federal piggy bank just waiting to be shipped to California to get the government ante up to $20 billion.
The balance is to come from a private partnership and/or ---- surprise! ---- a special tax.
It is career-threatening to describe in a family publication just how truly special that bit of pick pocketing would be.
Say, while the feds are about it, perhaps they could send along the piddling few millions of dollars they promised to help with our Murrieta Creek flood-control project. But we digress.
It's not that we shouldn't be building or enhancing passenger rail service. It's more like: Can we? And, if so, is it the right time and the right project?
Our ability to pull this off in any kind of judicious manner is in question right out of the station. We've only been spending millions of dollars on this since 1996.
You can see how far we've gotten.
One might compare this to making a puff pastry: Roll out the dough, fold it over, let it set for a while, roll it out again, fold it again, let it set some more, roll it out again. ... You get the idea.
While the comparison to a puff pastry's flakiness is almost too much to resist, when you think about it, bread might be more appropriate. Yeast and all that.
As for the timing of the vote, if you wanted to make certain its defeat, all you'd have to do is make sure the state's fiscal picture is bleak when Mr. and Ms. Lunchbucket go the to poll.
Given that scenario, rare would be the year when it would pass, but the bigger question is that of necessity.
As has been pointed out more than once, high-speed rail north to south is not a necessity.
What we need is regional rail and, given the money being thrown at highways, it could become reality with far less fiscal pain than continuing to pour and repour concrete to no effect.
But, even given the tack of creating regional systems that actually benefit the payee and linking them by high speed as needed, the state of our affairs dictates that this hardly is the time to be borrowing $10 billion for darn near anything.
Shoot, a single year's debt service probably would be enough to save us from having to cut education by even one penny.
Phil Strickland is a resident of Temecula and a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: philipestrickland@yahoo.com.
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Derek wrote on Apr 7, 2008 2:35 PM:The rising cost of jet fuel is causing airlines to slash jobs, enact new surcharges, reduce their levels of customer service, put off maintenance, cut their less profitable flights, and it has even caused some airlines recently to shut down entirely. Since trains can get much better fuel economy than jetliners, the only time better than the present to start building high speed rail would have been 10 years ago, so it could be up and running by now.
We already have a passenger rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it only averages about 30 mph. Meanwhile, Amtrak's Acela Express high speed rail line in the northeast corridor makes a profit and cuts into airline traffic.
Instead of continuing to subsidize air travel, why not take that money and invest it in a cost-effective alternative? Can we afford not to?
Harold wrote on Apr 8, 2008 12:37 AM:Derek's idea is a good one. I have written to my Assemblyman to get them to start on this project 10 years ago so it can be ready by now.
Larry wrote on Apr 8, 2008 12:46 PM:Mr Strickland is totally off! This is the type of bad judgement that gets us to the state of economics that we are in right now! It is the PERFECT time (Although Should've been Years Ago) to get this thing up and running! We CANNOT afford to not build HSR! It is a must and rather than joining the rest of the world we act like rail travel is old technology when in fact it will probably never die as long as their is we still live on land and not space trains and passenger trains will exist. If we are the first to build it (NE Corridor's Acela is not "True" High Speed) people will see how great it is and more will be build! Possibly one day linking the whole nation! This will create more jobs and help those who already have jobs to get to those jobs!
Ian wrote on Apr 14, 2008 5:10 PM:HSR is a perfect example of Bucky Fuller's "What will it cost if we DON'T do this?"
Without HSR AND regional rail improvements, the price of movement will be shifted to the individual, much like college tuition.
Phil, maybe you should look at Prop 13, and how that caused the state's financial crisis. Public works projects like HSR are the solution. When did be build the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges? Oh, right, during the depression.
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