By Katy Grimes

SACRAMENTO — In 1974 Mel Brooks produced a classic comedy about the construction of the railroad into the West. With California Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic politicians pushing forward to build a high-speed rail system, the truth, once again, proves stranger than fiction. The sub-headlines in this article are all quotations from the comedy, “Blazing Saddles.”

“Maybe I could turn this thing into my advantage.”

After rail workers hit quicksand in Blazing Saddles, the route has to be changed right through the frontier town of Rock Ridge.

The conniving state attorney general wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving out the townspeople.  “Unfortunately there is one thing standing between me and that property: the rightful owners,” says Hedley Lamarr, played by Harvey Korman.

Lamarr orders gangs of thugs, bad guys, murderers and rustlers to scare the townspeople into abandoning Rock Ridge. “Men! You are about to embark on a great crusade … to stamp out run-away decency in the West,” Lamar says.

“Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered! Innocent women and children blown to bits!” responds Gov. William J. Le Petomane, played by the film’s director, Mel Brooks, when he finds out what’s going on. “We have to protect our phony baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!”

The old story line of Blazing Saddles closely parallels what is currently happening in California with High-Speed Rail. But even Mel Brooks couldn’t have written this ridiculous modern-day script.

“I didn’t get a ‘harrumph’ out of that guy!”

The California Legislature passed a bill in July which gave the California High-Speed Rail Authority the spending power over $8 billion for the next five years, but with no legislative oversight. Call it “Blazing Trains.”

Gov. Jerry Brown held carefully staged signing ceremonies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he inked SB1029 in the midst of cheering union members, construction workers and state and local politicians.

But the governor snubbed the Central Valley, where the initial 130 miles of non-electrified track will actually be installed, despite campaigning on claims that the Central Valley will be the beneficiary of numerous economic benefits and hundreds of jobs.

With a minimum price tag of at least $68 billion, coupled with a total state deficit of more than $600 billion, and the fact that California does not need a high-speed rail system, the state can ill-afford to build a new rail system. But the staggering deficit and lack of public interest hasn’t stopped the governor.

The bill authorized $5.8 billion to start construction of only one unelectric rail line in the Central Valley, and includes $2.6 billion in state rail bond funds, along with $3.2 billion in federal funds.

But California will have to borrow every dime of the money to build the high-speed boondoggle.

“It’s good to be the Gov.”

“What this is all about is investing in the future,” Brown said after signing the bill. “I know there are some fearful men — I call them declinists — who want to put their head in a hole and hope reality changes. I don’t see it that way. This is a time to invest, to create thousands of jobs.”

“Mongo go where choo choo go.”

After Brown signed the high-speed rail bill, many in the state said that he may have sealed California’s fate as the Greece of the nation. A June 2012 poll, conducted by USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times, found that voters would oppose the plan if given another chance to vote on it.

Despite the poll, the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee recently opined quite the opposite sentiment.

“No place in California stands to reap the rewards of high-speed rail more than the San Joaquin Valley,” the Bee wrote in December.

The editorial board outlined all of the support for the rail system, ignoring that the supporters came almost exclusively from the government sector. “From Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin to officials at California State University, Bakerfield — which is launching a ‘High-Speed Train Information and Simulation Center’ to build capability for innovation — far-thinking people realize the value of high-speed rail,” the Bee wrote.

The other “far-thinking people” are the contractors who have been awarded large union contracts to build the Central Valley rail line.

“As the site of the state’s only major north-south highways (Interstate 5 and Highway 99), some of the worst air quality in the nation, poverty and rapid loss of farmland to sprawling urban development, high-speed rail can improve quality of life in a number of ways.”

“Why would Hedley Lamarr care about where the choo-choo go?”

Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, has championed the cause against building High-Speed Rail with facts, data and and the overwhelming body of evidence that California’s economy cannot build or maintain the system.

Harkey noted in July that the governor did not hold his signing ceremony in the Central Valley. “Bakersfield, or Kern County, is next on the radar screen for a variety of routes involving 60- to 80-foot high viaducts, and destruction of historic buildings, business centers and neighborhoods,” Harkey said. “Kern County’s northern neighbor, Kings County, currently suing the state, was scheduled first for demolition. Changing ground zero to Fresno-north brought the Merced and Madera county farm bureaus into litigation, as well as other affected parties. The deep-rooted agricultural and oil-producing way of life in the Central Valley feeds and powers the state and nation.”

Harkey asked: “If creating the backbone for High-Speed Rail is such a boon to the people that live there, why are they suing?”

Residents in the Central Valley don’t want HSR. They want their farmland, and they want the water spigot turned back on.

California boasts the lowest credit rating in the nation. The state has to borrow billions of dollars every year to meet short-term cash flow needs. And California’s real debt is not the $16 billion that Brown and state Democrats crow about. In August, California’s real debt was recorded at $617 billion.

The state’s crime rate is up because of Brown’s realignment “catch and release” plan for state prisoners. California ranks down at the bottom of the states with Mississippi in public education achievement and test scores, but ironically supports one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients. Unemployment in California is way above the national average. Municipal bankruptcies are snowballing.

“But we continue to borrow to fund needless projects and ‘realign’ grabbing funds from local governments,” Harkey said. “The result yields more centralized state control and a growing state bureaucracy.”

By Katy Grimes

What a train wreck. Barreling down the tracks in one direction, on April 9 a congressional committee launched a probe California’s high-speed rail project over charges of conflicts of interest and questionable spending of federal dollars.  Barreling head-on toward it from the other direction, on April 12 the California High-Speed Rail Authority voted to approve its own revised business plan.

The state action leaves only an up-or-down vote from the state Legislature to break ground on a project the CHSRA now pegs at costing $68.4 billion.

The project costs have varied from an original estimate of $33 billion, to an official high estimate of $98.5 billion, and back down to a dubious $68.4 billion. But the Legislative Analyst’s Office said that it is “highly uncertain if funding to complete the high-speed rail system will ever materialize,” and rail experts have estimated the project will cost more than $136 billion.

The next stop for the CHSRA is to convince the Legislature to approve the project in order to move full steam ahead. Right now, the rail authority and supportive Democrats are counting noses in the Legislature to determine where the needed votes will come from.

Reublicans want the plan demolished, and Democrats aren’t talking much at all.

However, Article XVl of the California Constitution authorizes the Legislature to either pull the plug on high-speed rail, or at the very least, reduce the amount of indebtedness, if no debt has been contracted.

There is still plenty of time to stop this runaway train.

What Voters Approved in 2008

California voters approved Proposition 1A in 2008, the “Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.” Here are some details:

* $33.5 billion cost. They approved a total cost of $33.5 billion for a high-speed rail system. The $33.5 billion was to be made up of a combination of 1/3 federal funds, 1/3 state funds and 1/3 private funds. Importantly, the investment from California taxpayers was limited to a $9.95 billion bond.

Today, the costs have skyrocketed to $98.5 billion from $33.5 billion, reliance on federal funds has increased by more than six times the original cost and no private funders have materialized to invest in the project.

Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, said it’s highly unlikely any private parties will pony up investment money on the project. “There are no private party investments, and no earnest deposits,” Harkey said. “As long as California continues with this plan, we will never attract private capital.

Instead, the state is taking a hugh risk with taxpayer “capital.”

* S.F. to L.A. Voters approved a system connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, with a trip time of two hours and 40 minutes, at a cost of $55 per ticket. But the plan has veered sharply inland from San Francisco to Los Angeles, over to the Central Valley, with a leg from Fresno to Bakersfield. And the cost of the trip jumped to $105.

* Ridership: 95 million. Even ridership numbers have been toyed with. Voters were told that there would be a ridership of 95 million passengers by 2030. Ridership estimates have decreased nearly three times since 2008, and they are still absurdly inflated. In the new report, they’re estimated to be as high as 36 million passengers by 2060 (page 5-17). That’s about a third of the Prop. 1A promise.

* Bond repayment. Repaying high-speed rail bonds will cost the state’s General Fund $647 million per year for 30 years, or approximately $20 billion for the $9.95 billion bond.

High-Speed Fairy Tale

The High-Speed Rail Authority claims that high-speed rail throughout the world runs profitably. But:

France subsidizes its high-speed rail system by nearly $10 billion annually. Japan subsidizes its rail system with nearly $2 billion annually. And Spain spends nearly $3 billion on high-speed rail subsidies every year.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs” was the campaign rally cry for Jerry Brown during his run for governor, and when he vowed his support for high-speed rail. He supported it so much it’s earned the nickname the “Browndoggle.”

But while Brown continues to blindly support the rail plan, the High-Speed Rail Authority claims that the project will create 20,000 jobs. However, a January report by the Assembly Republican Caucus found that there is evidence to prove that the rail authority overstated job creation by nearly 50 percent. “Even using the HSRA optimistic job creation estimates for Phase l, California investment will be about $1.96 million per job created, or $5.8 million per direct job created,” the caucus report found.

The rail authority must have used the New Math to calculate jobs. The HSRA claims that jobs are calculated in “job-years.” One year of full employment equals a job-year. Therefore, one person employed for 20 years counts as 20 “jobs” using this new math.

Greenhouse gases

The High-Speed Rail Authority has always claimed that the rail plan will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But estimates of just how much carbon emissions will be reduced have gone from absurdly high, to only ridiculously high. Now “methods are still being developed” to determine just how much GHG will be reduced.

Even the California Air Resources Board in its AB 32 scoping plan dramatically dropped the estimates of greenhouse gas reductions for high-speed rail by 82 percent of what voters were promised in 2008.

High-Speed Rail 5.0

Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, calls the latest reincarnation of the high-speed rail business plan, “High-Speed Rail 5.0.”

“In plan number one we had the ballot initiative and cost estimates of $33 to $45 billion. Plan number two was up the ticket prices,” La Malfa said. “Plan number three was the $98.5 billion plan. Plan number four was the $68 billion plan, and Orange County was kicked out. Plan number five is the latest business plan approval with Orange County back in.”

Harkey added that the plan is wrought with inconsistencies and violations of the 2008 law. She explained that it’s not high-speed rail if it will be used in crowded urban areas such as Orange County. Nor can high-speed rail be used in moving freight.

What’s Ahead For High-Speed Rail?

The Legislature has until Aug. 31 to authorize the bond sale that would get the project started. While Republicans can’t kill the rail project by themselves, there are many Democrats who are not supportive of it, but appear to be holding out to make deals on local transit projects.

Keep an eye on termed-out legislators, or legislators who don’t have to run again until 2014 for key votes on the plan.

Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has been somewhat cryptic in his comments about the rail project. Simitian has warned the rail authority several times in committee hearings that it needed to have a more realistic business plan or state funding for the rail project would be cut off, but repeatedly says that he favors high-speed rail “if done right.”

While Simitian has voiced concerns aloud in committee hearings, he has voted to pass rail bills, while simultaneously telling the rail authority and committee members to provide him with amendments addressing his concerns.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-San Diego, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, notified the California High-Speed Rail Authority about the probe earlier this week, and ordered the agency to preserve its documents and records.

Issa’s committee announced earlier this week that it’s questioning whether the $4 billion from the federal government has been spent appropriately, and said they want to investigate possible conflicts of interest between rail officials and contractors.

“California high-speed rail was sold to voters as a grand vision for tomorrow but in practice appears to be no different than countless other pork-barrel projects — driven more by political interests and consultant spending than valid cost-benefit analysis,” Issa said. “Before more taxpayer money is sent to the rail authority, questions must be answered about mismanagement, conflicts of interest, route selection, ridership and other risks.”

While offering her praise last week for Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised approach on California’s high-speed rail, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein still cautioned that the federal funding for the project could depend on final cost projections. But that was last week’s high-speed rail plan. This week the plan is again different.

“If this was a debate, the rail authority would get smoked,” La Malfa added. “This is the most abusive waste of the taxpayers’ money, and one of the biggest frauds since the $600 toilet seats” for military aircraft, a scandal from the past.

I hope that the rest of America is happy that even more of its tax money will be robbed to pay for California’s High-Speed-Train-To-Nowhere-Boondoggle. Reports McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — California’s high-speed rail plan will receive up to $624 million in additional federal funds, Transportation Department officials announced Thursday.

The new funding adds to the $715 million in federal funds previously awarded to California. It arrives courtesy of Ohio and Wisconsin, two states where recently elected Republican governors decided not to accept their own allotment of high-speed rail dollars.

“I am pleased that so many other states are enthusiastic about the additional support they are receiving to help bring America’s high-speed rail network to life,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared in a written statement.

LaHood’s redistribution of an additional $1.195 billion in high-speed rail funding provoked cheers among lawmakers who had been lobbying for a bigger slice, but regret among some Midwesterners who saw their own money slip away.

California is one of 12 states that will receive a piece of the redirected funds. Florida, the next biggest beneficiary will get $300 million.

California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, had both urged LaHood last month to provide additional funding once it became clear Ohio and Wisconsin would forgo their potential share.

“No other state is as ready, as able, or as determined to develop a high-speed rail system in the near future,” Feinstein stated.

Boxer added that the new funding is “great news for California, which has made a strong commitment to high-speed rail and the jobs it creates.”

Of course, the federal taxpayers’ loot is but a fraction of the $90 billion cost — at least — of this demented choo-choo. Ohio and Wisconsin are smart in turning down the dough, because state taxpayers also have to kick in billions, and then pay billions more for maintenance and operation.

Yet, Gov. Arnold, DiFi, Babs Boxer, Debt Maestro Bill Lockyer, and Legislative leaders back the Train to Nowhere.

Meanwhile, in the Real World, the U.S. government just ran up a $150 billion deficit in November, the highest ever. That works out to $1.8 trillion for a year, meaning the deficit now is around 40% of federal spending.

And California’s budget deficit now has jumped even higther, to $28 billion.

Yet all along we have had high-speed trains that take you from L.A. to Sacramento or S.F. in about an hour. They even have wings. They’re called airplanes.

Dec. 10, 2010