Brown still on loony, increasingly lonely bullet-train bandwagon

Cal Watchdog managing editor John Seiler and I were among the pundits who got a telephone budget briefing from Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday afternoon. I was disappointed but unsurprised to hear that the governor is still 1,000 percent on the bullet-train bandwagon.

In the aftermath of Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny’s November ruling that the project did not have a legal business plan or adequate environmental reviews, California High Speed Rail Authority officials were bizarrely dismissive. But the governor said little.

That was in sharp contrast to what happened after Kenny’s preliminary ruling in August, when Brown loudly joined in the rail authority’s campaign of belittlement. That didn’t happen after Kenny’s final ruling.

But Jerry was back in spin mode Thursday. He told me the project’s finances were “on solid ground” — and that no “major hurdles” loomed.

Groan.

The bullet train is $25 billion short of a legal business plan. Jerry’s antidote: contributing $250 million a year of AB 32 pollution-credit auction funds.

$250,000,000 / $25,000,000,000 = 1.0 percent.

He is seriously arguing that giving the rail authority 1 percent of its funding shortfall next budget year addresses the project’s funding nightmare.

As John McEnroe would say, you cannot be serious. As Dick Enberg would say, oh, my. As Redd Foxx would say, bleep bleep BLEEPING bleep.