If the legislature approves funding for high-speed rail later this week, voters may see the state as an unreformed spendthrift and reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed tax hike.
The L.A. Times’ George Skelton is one of several pundits making this point.
What bad luck high-speed rail has had — and, by extension, what bad luck the Valley, which could so benefit from the system, has had.
First, the legislature declines to fully fund the High Speed rail Authority, and the rump HSRA makes one controversial decision after another. Then coastal California gets up on its hind legs over the decision to build “a train to nowhere” up the Valley first. Then south-Valley residents get in a lather over the system’s farm-splitting alignment.
All on a backdrop of recession and constand coastal maneuvering to hijack the system. What a difference there is between Apple’s products, the designed-in-California iPods and iPads Californian’s can’t get enough of, and high-speed rail, the designed-in-California bullet train many denouce as big government or a boondoggle. There’s still genius in California design, but the public won’t let it flower in government, or has lost faith that it can.
