Let The Fighting Begin

According The Fresno Bee article today (January 14, 2013) the HSRA goes to the Public Works office today for approval to purchase property.  This is essentially the process of condemning privately owned property for all the people who don't have a desire to sell their property.  This is where the attorneys get involved and sue the State action.

The biggest issue against the project in terms of being realistic is that there is no plan from the State on how to pay for the proposed project.  There are various figures used by the HSRA as to how much the federal government is allocating, generally that figure ranges around $20billion.  Add the $9billion from the manipulated 1A bond legislation passed in 2008 and the figure comes to nearly $30billion from public taxation (public sources means people paid taxes).  The private sector is expected to pay for the remaining $38billion except that, according the the HSRA, no private entities are willing to obligate $38billion.  It is understood that the private sector will invest into a project that brings a profit but, where will the profit come from?  Current procedure for building projects of this type are only built with government guarantees, this, of course, means that the HSRA will have to obligate its projected annual operations and maintenance budget towards a private contractor.  This means that the government will 'lend' the money to a private contractor for the contractors participation.  Again, this is bond money, or money that the government borrows.

A good article for the financing arrangements can be found at California Common Sense in an article by Christopher Knight in July, 2012.   It explains specific details about the proposed CA HSR project.

Having followed the procedure and policy of the proposed HSR project, one finds the political force pushing the project is very strong.  It is very clear that the will of this very strong political force does not comprehend what is good for the people of California but, it seeks expensive contracts which bring profit to these elite politically connected organizations who find their profit at the expense of the taxpayer.  Again, the proposed CA HSR project has nothing to do with transportation; it is only the political process of high level income generation for the politically connected.