Taking a bullet train to bankruptcy

Everyone knows California state government is practically bankrupt from excessive social program spending, bloated union pension obligations, years of borrowing and flight of their business tax base. Gov. Jerry Brown and California Democrats think this would be a good time to launch a $100 billion high-speed rail public works project that won't be completed until 2033.

While Republicans criticized the rising cost – Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton called the project a "boondoggle that needs to be derailed" – Gov. Jerry Brown and leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature issued praise, putting the project on firmer ground ahead of legislative hearings next year.

"This plan represents a new day, a new time and a new beginning," Tom Umberg, chairman of the rail authority board, told reporters at the California State Railroad Museum.

If approved, the authority will start construction next fall in the Central Valley, from Bakersfield to near Chowchilla, expanding the line to San Francisco and the Los Angeles area by 2033. The authority estimated construction could cost $98.5 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars, more than twice the previous estimate of $43 billion.

Rail officials pressed their plan at the rail museum from a lectern at the head of a Northwestern Pacific locomotive, steeping their appeal in the tradition of infrastructure spending. Keep on reading...