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June 3, 2011 By News Staff
California has the reputation — deserved or not — of being overly bureaucratic. A bill being considered in the state Assembly won’t help to dispel that perception.
Lawmakers are reportedly combing over a bill that would create a Department of High-Speed Trains that would take away some of the autonomy of the California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA). The legislation, AB 145, would relegate the HSRA to an advisory role. The Sacramento Bee reported that the bill passed the Assembly on a 50-16 vote on Friday, June 3. Its next stop will be the California Senate.
The bill comes on the heels of SB 517, another proposed law that would shift the HSRA into the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Authored by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, the legislation was passed by the Senate on a 26-12 vote on June 1. SB 517 now heads to the California Assembly for hearings.
The HSRA is the state agency charged with planning the state’s high-speed train project. The project has been under fire by various critics including the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, whose office issued a fairly critical report last month on the status of high-speed rail in California.
Lowenthal and Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, also questioned the project extensively, and ordered an audit of the HSRA because of testimony of the authority’s officials in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee earlier this year. The audit uncovered “significant inadequacies in the management practices” of the HSRA, including “a finding that contractors were paid $4 million in fees without documentation that work was actually performed,” according to an April 29 press release from Lowenthal’s office.
“I have been concerned for some time that the authority has had trouble transitioning from a promotional agency to an organization that can manage a project of this magnitude,” Lowenthal said in the release.
California’s high-speed rail project would connect various northern and southern cities in the state with a rail line through the San Joaquin Valley. The train would travel at speeds approaching 200 mph. Construction will be paid for thanks to a $9.95 billion bond approved by voters in November 2008 as well as additional funding from the federal government and other parties.
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http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/California-Department-High-Speed-Trains.html
CA Treasurer Bill Lockyer, the California politician responsible for selling these CAHSR bonds, said on March 14, 2011 to an LA news reporter that no one is interested in buying CA HSR bonds because the CAHSR is more interested in issuing bad PR, rather than coming up with a sound business plan. Until there is a sound business plan, or even a half-baked one, then no one will invest in this stinker of a project. Interviewer asks: “so are investors saying we’re interested, but it doesn’t look like you guys [CAHSR Authority] know what you’re doing” & Lockyer responds: “that’s what they’re saying”; Interviewer: “what do you think?” & Lockyer responds: “well, I think the same thing.” High faluting ideas are one thing, wasting your nest egg investing in a stinker is quite another - see interview here: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/NewsConference___California_Treasurer_Bill_Lockyer__Part_3_Los_Angeles-117841823.html Listen to words of the actual California High Speed Rail Authority, and the California State Senators/Assemblymembers asking critical questions of CAHSRA - a video speaks more than a thousand written words - this is not the Chairman or Board who should oversee a $100 Billion dollar plus project: http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/28/UHOPzKH0kxo (CAHSR upsetting Big Agriculture, ignoring residents, as usual) http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/4/zmZAxjudOxo (Chairman Pringle - a little sassy, isn't he?) http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/10/ts1ybBrYhDk (Senator Simitian - you don't want to upset this guy, for sure) http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/47/ojh2qYa2fmU (Simitian, Lowenthal, all California legislators are "concerned" about the CAHSRA...) http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/48/hnI4CYF0NK8 http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/49/y0_b3hkbgls http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr#p/u/44/UzxfY28uZlQ
California govt should spend its time forming a "Department of Fomenting Insolvency" team.
A dysfunctional High Speed Rail organization with no ability to plan, develop, or properly account for vast amounts of taxpayer monies seems to be a bit of a problem? There seems to be little real accountability at CHSRA and many feel that such reforms may be needed to develop a cost effective and sustainable high speed rail project. Those who want to kill High Speed Rail have been given plenty of "aid and comfort" by the irresponsibility and foolishness at the CHSRA, but more effective and faster rail services are needed, so I do support many of these reforms.
I find it fascinating that the waste at so many levels of our government goes unreported and uncomplained about, but politicians line up to bash rail transportation. (Remember the $34 billion that went missing in Iraq, that Defense Department contractors can't account for? That's $34,000 million. This article complains about $4 million.) Yes, $4 million is a terrible waste, but we could easily fund *all* high-speed rail projects in the U.S. if we just cut the waste out of our national defense budget.
I rmember the 34 billion that went missing, well actually it was somewhere around 7 billion. Well it turns out it was not actually missing and that the 'contractors' did not steal it as so many on the left have claimed for years. Funny, they found that money and accounted for all of it but that stiry barely made a blip. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/once-feared-lost-now-accounted-iraq-inspector-says-153935856.html
Sounds like a fast track to bankruptcy.