California’s long-troubled high-speed rail project is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to taxpayer-funded infrastructure boondoggles, according to a new report from Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. [emphasis, links added]
With an original completion date of 2020, the California High-Speed Rail Project has now gone $95 billion over budget with a revised launch date no earlier than 2030, leading the Trump administration to pull $4 billion in unspent federal funding from the troubled effort in July.
But the rail project represents just one of 13 infrastructure projects funded by the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies that are collectively $163 billion over budget, according to the Ernst report.
“Slamming the brakes on the California Crazy Train, that I fought for years to defund, was a strong start, but there is a lot more work to do,” Ernst told the Free Beacon.
“Today, I am exposing more than $160 billion in boondoggles that need to be brought to a squealing halt to claw funds back in a future rescissions package.”
Ernst’s report, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy endorsed in a statement Wednesday, underscores the extent to which taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects often turn into money holes that swallow more government dollars than anticipated.
“If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect to be held accountable by the American people. No more boondoggles!” Duffy told the Free Beacon. “Thank you, Senator Ernst, for your leadership in Congress to ensure federal dollars are being used effectively and efficiently.”
The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big, there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.
Ernst said it’s no coincidence that the bulk of the troubled infrastructure projects are located in California, where former speaker of the State Assembly Willie Brown once boasted about deploying bait-and-switch budgeting tactics to secure taxpayer funding for doomed infrastructure projects.
“In the world of civic projects, the first budget is really just a down payment. If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved,” Brown wrote in a 2013 op-ed. “The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big, there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.”
Budgeting like that led to a litany of wasteful and bizarre spending on California’s High-Speed Rail project, the Free Beacon reported, with the state spending $50,000 of its budget on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, $177,000 for PoliticoPro subscriptions, and $5 million for graffiti removal, just to name a few.
All the while, the project has more than tripled in price, but no track has been laid, and no stations have been built.
President Donald Trump called the California High-Speed Rail project “the worst-managed project I think I’ve ever seen,” and on July 17, Duffy terminated $4 billion in unspent federal funding for the project.
Ernst praised the Trump administration for canceling federal funding to the rail project but said billions more in potential savings remain on the table.
That includes $5.1 billion in unspent federal funds that the Biden administration committed to the Silicon Valley Subway Extension project, which was originally priced at $4.7 billion in 2018, with passenger services promised to begin in 2026.
That price tag has since ballooned to $12.8 billion, and its completion date has been delayed by more than a decade to 2039.
“This train hasn’t even left the station yet, and it’s already a boondoggle,” Ernst wrote. “The Trump administration should consider canceling the federal support and save taxpayers $5.1 billion.”
Federal taxpayers could save another $3.4 billion if the Trump administration cancels a Biden-era commitment to a San Francisco transit project that has doubled in budget from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $8.3 billion, Ernst wrote.
“Taxpayers in the rest of the country shouldn’t be forced to bail out Golden State gravy trains because bureaucrats in Washington are so easily bamboozled by California’s boondoggle budgeteering,” Ernst wrote in her report.
Read full post at Free Beacon
