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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
