WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released a timeline of California’s high-speed rail boondoggle after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) announced that the state would be abandoning the project.
Timeline:
2008 – California voters approve $9.95 billion in bonds for a first in the nation, 800-mile high-speed rail project with an initial cost estimate of $35 billion to be completed by 2020.
2010 – Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) vetoes a financial accountability measure to preserve his legacy project.
2011 – The project’s cost estimate rises to $98.5 billion and the completion date is pushed back to 2033.
2012 – The boondoggle is “scaled back” and now includes, “speculative funding sources that might never materialize.”
2014 – Construction has yet to begin, but in his State of the State address, then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.), “ad-libbed [a] summary of the Little Engine That Could, rhythmically chanting its signature line, ‘I think I can,’ four times.”
2015 – Gov. Brown wildly claims, “I think we’re approaching that point of inevitability,” with the project.
2016 – The boondoggle is beset by, “legal, financial, and logistical delays.”
2017 – The Orange County Register pans the seemingly never-ending project: “More time-consuming and tens of billions of dollars more expensive than estimated when California voters approved the funding measure in 2008.”
2018 – A new business plan again moves the goalposts on price targets, ride schedule, geography, and overall taxpayer cost.
2019 – Gov. Newsom announces the project’s overdue demise: “Let's be real. The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There's been too little oversight and not enough transparency.”
CAGW President Tom Schatz said in a statement:
“California’s high-speed rail fantasy quickly became a train to nowhere at taxpayer expense. This failed boondoggle should be taken as a giant red stop sign for any politician who supports the ‘Green New Deal’ and its equally farcical promise of ending air travel by forcing taxpayers to pay for a California-style rail system across the entire nation.”
Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
