Prop 1A: California's Train to Financial Deficit

By Joseph Varney

Proposition 1A — one of the most ill conceived projects in California history — authorized $9.95 billion in bonds to fund a high-speed train to Los Angeles from San Francisco. To no surprise, the cost of the Prop. 1A has skyrocketed and is now forecast to be $100 billion. This project must be killed immediately. It is only adding to this state's abysmal debt level that has been caused by irresponsible politicians and uninformed voters.

A bullet train that goes from San Francisco to Los Angeles sounds fantastic in theory. The problem is that not only is funding not secured, but the proposed path of the train itself is ludicrous.

It runs through private property and sensitive environmental areas and would create a litigious nightmare. It is shameful and wrong that the backers of the high-speed train presented it as a pleasant idea with no repercussions. This is a case that warrants a federal investigation into the backers of 1A.

The increased estimated cost of the project come at a time when California will run out of money by March 1, according to Controller John Chiang. From a logical standpoint, one would think that since California will have no money in less than a month, the state should abandon the project. However, this is California, where incredulousness knows no bounds. Governor Jerry Brown, the Obama administration, organized labor and many members of the legislature are promoting the train. They still support it despite officials and reports explaining what a fiscal disaster it is.

Thankfully, some of its supporters are abandoning the project and are coming to terms with reality that this is not something that is needed at this time. Opposition is surely bound to increase as the fraudulent nature of the proposition is exposed.

Recent polls have indicated that voters are increasingly less enamored with the mismanagement and even the idea of building a high-speed train in its entirety.

The State Auditor predictably found that the project's management is both underfunded and understaffed and has determined the project to be "increasingly risky." It is unbelievable that supporters, starting with the governor and President Obama, have not listened to any studies that expose the fiscal calamity of the high-speed train.

If that were not enough, studies have also found that the estimated number of riders and proposed revenue has been overstated. Independent studies have found that the estimated income potentially produced from the train was grossly overstated. Furthermore, the train to fiscal ruin comes at a time when the state's school systems are facing draconian budget cuts. This is in addition to cuts in services to the elderly, the mentally ill and the judicial system.

In my opinion, those are services that are vital and must be top priorities. The very notion of completing a terribly planned and astonishingly expensive proposition is immoral because it comes at the expense of those who truly need the money.

With regards to the transportation issue, money would be better spent fixing this state's existing infrastructure, which is in a state of disrepair much like the government system in the capital.

There is only so much money to be spent anywhere and in California there is literally no money to spend. Unless of course, the money is borrowed; a disappointing tenant of Sacramento's way of doing business and the voters that pass propositions such as this. It is time for these types of projects to end in addition to the power wielded by a few influential legislators and special interest organizations.

Joseph Varney is a senior political science major.