Another California Billion Dollar Boondoggle
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Voters beware the salesmen who come with hat in hand, pitching shiny or miraculous services and benefits for a bargain bottom price and the promise of a profit. Your wallets and blank checks are their target. With a ballooning price tag and doubts about federal funding, it is increasingly obvious that voters were sold a bill of goods by the backers of California’s high-speed train to nowhere….

“More grim news on $99 billion high-speed rail plan, as showdown looms” — San Jose Mercury News

“The price tag for this risky transit gamble is now nearly $100 billion — more than twice the original estimate,” — FoxandHoundDaily.com

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George Runner, a member of California’s Board of Equalization and a former state Senator, in a post on an influential California political blog on November 8, said: “The new number is greater than California’s entire annual state budget. To fund the entire project today, every Californian, including men, women and children, would need to write a check for more than $2500.”

When backers of high-speed rail pitched the idea to California voters in 2008, they told Californians this project would pay for itself and even turn a profit in a few years. Today, three years and $60+ billion in higher cost projections later, it’s pretty clear backers weren’t being straight with California voters.

A similar dynamic exists with another measure, this one on the June 2012 ballot.

The so called California Cancer Research Act (CCRA) would increase taxes by nearly a billion dollars on Californians, to pay for another new government spending program and brand new bureaucracy to oversee it.

The CCRA’s backers — including one career politician who is behind the measure — are making a bunch of promises about the measure’s benefits.

Sound familiar?

Whether it’s high-speed trains or the latest tax-and-spend program with big-time benefits promised, Californians should have learned one thing about ballot measures by now: The promises are almost always too good to be true.

Martha Montelongo is a radio talk show host, blogger, and columnist in Santa Cruz, California.

Photo: California State Capitol, Sacramento