Martin,

Do you think the Contra Costa Times, publisher of the excellent anti HSR editorial "Boondoggle Express" in June, and other California newspapers could be pursuaded to reprint this accompanied by their own editorial suggesting a similar fate for California HSR? Jack
--- Martin Engel <martinengel@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Here is the best "preview of coming attractions" I
> have seen
> recently. There can be no doubt that what the
> article describes will
> happen in California, but on a much larger scale.
> In about 100 days,
> the voters will decide. In ignorance of what this
> object lesson
> tells us, they will decide incorrectly.
>
> The amounts involved will be larger by several
> orders of magnitude.
> To understand the article in the most useful way,
> just substitute the
> word "California" for the word "Massachusetts" and
> "California High
> Speed Rail" for the term "Boston Big Dig."
> Remember, the key
> contracting company, Parsons Brinckerhoff, is the
> same for both
> Boston and for the high-speed train.
>
> No time to read the article now? Then save it for
> later, when your
> taxes go up. It will explain why.
>
> Martin
> ==============
>
> Published Thursday, July 17, 2008, by the Boston
> Globe
>
> Big Dig's red ink engulfs state
>
> Cost spirals to $22b; crushing debt sidetracks other
> work, pushes
> agency toward insolvency
>
> By Sean P. Murphy
> Globe Staff
>
> Massachusetts residents got a shock when state
> officials, at the peak
> of construction on the Big Dig project, disclosed
> that the price tag
> had ballooned to nearly $15 billion. But that, it
> turns out, was just
> the beginning.
>
> Now, three years after the official dedication of
> the Central
> Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, the state is reeling
> under a legacy of
> debt left by the massive project. In all, the
> project will cost an
> additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the
> total to a staggering
> $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds
> of pages of
> state documents. It will not be paid off until 2038.
>
> Contrary to the popular belief that this was a
> project heavily
> subsidized by the federal government, 73 percent of
> construction
> costs were paid by Massachusetts drivers and
> taxpayers. To meet that
> obligation, the state's annual payments will be
> nearly as much over
> the next several years, $600 million or more, as
> they were in the
> heaviest construction period.
>
> Big Dig payments have already sucked maintenance and
> repair money
> away from deteriorating roads and bridges across the
> state, forcing
> the state to float more highway bonds and to go even
> deeper into the
> hole.
>
> Among other signs of financial trouble: The state is
> paying almost
> 80 percent of its highway workers with borrowed
> money; the crushing
> costs of debt have pushed the Massachusetts Turnpike
> Authority, which
> manages the Big Dig, to the brink of insolvency; and
> Massachusetts
> spends a higher percentage of its highway budget on
> debt than any
> other state.
>
> The scope of the debt has not previously been
> calculated, much less
> publicly disclosed, by the state's political
> leaders, including
> Governor Deval Patrick and his senior transportation
> officials. The
> Globe confirmed its calculations in interviews with
> the state's
> financial analysts.
>
> "The Big Dig saddled us with costs we can't afford,"
> said Bernard
> Cohen, secretary of transportation. "We are
> grappling with that
> legacy now. There are no easy answers."
>
> The debt is a big part of why Massachusetts had the
> highest tax-
> supported debt per capita in the United States last
> year. Most of the
> Big Dig borrowing occurred when cost overruns on the
> tunnel network
> skyrocketed in the late 1990s and state officials
> scrambled to keep
> the partially completed project afloat.
>
> The impact of the debt can be seen in some
> frustrating and alarming
> ways.
>
> During the last three years, Massachusetts spent the
> most of any
> state, by far, 38 percent of its highway budget, on
> debt payments,
> according to Globe analysis of federal data. The
> median is less than
> 6 percent nationally.
>
> The state has also been forced to meet payroll
> demands for 1,400
> Massachusetts Highway Department workers with
> borrowed money because
> it does not have enough cash to pay them. That means
> that painters
> and clerical workers paid around $18 an hour cost
> the state $28.80
> an hour. The 80 percent of the workforce being paid
> with borrowed
> money compares to 14 percent before the Big Dig work
> began.
>
> Across the state, commuters are suffering daily for
> the massive
> shortfalls that have led to closings and stalled
> projects.
>
> In Boston, Red Line trains on the Longfellow Bridge
> are forced to a
> crawl, trucks are prohibited, and the volume of
> passenger cars is
> restricted. On the South Shore, the Fore River
> Bridge between Quincy
> and Weymouth is awaiting replacement while motorists
> squeeze over a
> temporary span. And in Southeastern Massachusetts,
> Fall River
> motorists are frustrated with the pace of work on
> replacing the
> Brightman Street Bridge.
>
> "It's a mess," said Fall River resident Muriel
> Pomprowicz.
>
> Other such signs of neglect include a fleet of rusty
> trucks, some
> of them 12 years old, that are still on the road.
>
> From the start, the Big Dig was supposed to be paid
> for jointly by
> the federal and state governments. When the project
> was unveiled in
> the early 1980s, Massachusetts residents were told
> by transportation
> officials that the federal government would pick up
> 90 percent of the
> cost. Based on cost and borrowing estimates made at
> that time, state
> residents were expected to spend around $345
> million, interest
> payments on debt included.
>
> But the federal government ruled that the project
> was not eligible
> for that level of federal support. As costs mounted
> over the next two
> decades, it was the state's responsibility to make
> up the difference.
> Ultimately, the federal government paid just 27
> percent of the
> construction costs, or about $4 billion.
>
> As a result, the Globe analysis of state and federal
> data shows,
> state taxpayers and toll-payers are responsible for
> a staggering
> $18 billion of the total $22 billion in construction
> and debt costs.
>
>

=== message truncated === Received on Mon Jul 21 11:35:59 2008