My goal in coming back to the California state senate is to bring common sense back to the California legislature. My first bill seeks to do just that by defunding the high-speed rail, and use those funds to reduce the gas tax.
This proposal should be a no brainer. For starters, it is time to put an end to California’s high speed mistake. My dad always taught me the best way to get out of a ditch is to stop digging. 2008’s Prop 1A sold high-speed rail to the people as 800-miles connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, for $9.95 billion in bonds, to be completed by 2020.
A reasonable policy argument can exist as to whether such a project would still have merits, but California High-Speed Rail has wildly broken trust with the public.
Too much time and too much money has already been spent, and we need to stop digging the ditch deeper.
The governor was recently quoted saying “This is starting to get very, very real.” Yet the entire project was supposed to have been completed a half decade ago, and not a single mile of track has been completed.
What was marketed initially as $9.95 billion in bonds has skyrocketed to an estimated $128 billion overall budget. The project needs an immediate $7 billion dollars in order to keep moving forward. And the overall project will require more than $100 billion in additional investment to ever be completed.
Enough is enough. Continuing to throw good money after bad towards this high-speed rail financial train wreck erodes public confidence in what our state can achieve and misses endless opportunities of how better to use over $100 billion dollars.
We can we do better things with these valuable funds. My approach looks to make California more affordable in a meaningful way, and give relief to hand working California families by immediately lowering gas prices.
Too many Californians are living paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford California’s excessive gas tax prices and regulatory costs. What could you do with an extra $1,000 dollar a year? That’s about what an average two- car family pays each year. And that will grow closer to $1,500 per family if the state doesn’t stop an upcoming, additional $.65 per gallon tax.
For some families, having an extra $1,500 a year might mean saving towards their kids’ education, putting away for retirement, or even taking a vacation. For others, it might be paying down credit card debt, or just being able to more comfortably pay rent. For some Californians, it may literally mean making an increasingly difficult choice between a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk.
At a time when cost of living is taking a toll on Californians up and down the state, cutting back on those excessive gas taxes could make a real difference for countless working families. And by simply, finally admitting high-speed rail has failed, we have the funds to provide this financial relief to so many people who could use it.
Some of the Assembly and Senate Democrats have begun publicly questioning the wisdom of continuing to invest in high-speed rail recently for the first time. We have an opportunity to end the most wasteful public project in American history, that has repeatedly broken its promise with Californians, and instead look at giving tax relief to those who need it. To me, that’s a win-win for California.
It was an honor to return to the Senate a few weeks ago, and I will continue to fight for the hardworking taxpayers that sent me back to Sacramento.
Tony Strickland represents California’s Senate District 36, proudly representing the cities and communities of Los Angeles and Orange Counties
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