Local lawmakers zero in on bullet train's new price tag
| Tuesday, Nov 01 2011 07:14 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Nov 01 2011 07:16 PM
Revised cost estimates on California's contentious high-speed rail project brought out sharp criticism Tuesday from several of Kern County's elected delegates to Sacramento and Washington.
Local Republican politicians focused almost exclusively on the $98.5 billion, inflation-adjusted price tag included in a 12-chapter draft business plan released Tuesday, and questioned whether the project deserves to break ground next year as planned.
Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, noted that when state voters approved a $9 billion state bond to support the project in 2008, the cost was estimated at $43 billion.
"Already we are told that actual costs will be nearly 300 percent higher -- and how much more tomorrow?" she wrote in an email.
Assemblyman David G. Valadao, R-Hanford, welcomed what he called "honest numbers" from project planners, but said the progress should be slowed down in light of the new cost estimate.
Valadao also took a jab at projections that the system would create 100,000 new jobs over the next five years, and another 1 million in the future.
"Of course spending $98 billion dollars will create a lot of jobs," he wrote. "Just hiring people to carry all that money in wheelbarrows and stack it up would create a few thousand jobs."
One of the project's biggest defenders in Congress, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said he, too, was concerned about the rising costs.
"However, we cannot afford to keep kicking the can down the road; it will only increase costs," he wrote in a news release. "This investment in high-speed rail needs to be compared to alternative transportation infrastructure costs that will be necessary to accommodate California's growing population, which could be as high as $170 billion."
Tuesday's long-awaited business plan, required by state lawmakers, was expected to provide a basis for continuing debate over whether the Legislature should approve allocation of state bond money to begin construction as scheduled in the Central Valley next year.
The federal government has pledged some $3 billion to the project, and many doubt any more is coming from Washington in the near term. With recent doubts that the private sector will contribute any money until the project becomes operational, state funding is considered critical.
The project is proposed to connect San Francisco and Anaheim with trains traveling as fast as 220 mph. Originally it was to reach those two destinations by 2020, but the draft business plan says that won't happen until 2033.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, called the new price tag "astronomical."
"But whether $43 billion or $100 billion, questions persist about the viability of the project," he wrote in an email. "That's exactly why my legislation freezing federal dollars for a year while an independent audit into its feasibility is conducted is critical."
State Sen. Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, said the funding shortfall alone was enough to send the project back to voters.
"Perhaps it is time to suspend ALL government funding for high-speed rail until a more realistic approach that includes a commitment for the necessary private investment can be developed," she wrote. "Any inflated cost to the State warrants additional voter approval."
A news media representative for state Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
