Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
HS2 will pretty much have a similar timeline from legal passage to completion. I dont know why so many people think CHSR is so unusual in this regard. Compared to China? Sure. But thats not how the western democratic world works. Cut them some slack... Things are just getting good.
|
The part of the equation that couldn't be foreseen back in 2008, or even as recently as 2015, are the monstrous California budget surpluses that have occurred back-to-back-to-back since 2018. Prudently, the initial surpluses were used to shore up the state pension fund. Irrationally, Newsom wants to give the 2021 surpluses back to citizens in the form of no-strings-attached checks in a year when ordinary citizens have gotten one stimulus check after another.
The state now has so much cash it doesn't know what to do with it, yet maintains the dog and pony show with regards to funding major capital improvements like public transportation and CAHSR. The state quite literally has the cash coming in to pay cash in real time to complete CAHSR Phase 1 in the next 10 years. I wouldn't suggest doing so - since the feds usually match state/local dollars, but the fact is that HSR's funding crisis isn't for a lack of available dollars.