State’s bullet train constructed with foundation of deceit

The incompetence and irresponsibility at the California High-Speed Rail Authority are staggering.

It’s been clear for years now that bullet-train planners cannot deliver the project voters were promised a decade ago. Nor do they have close to the necessary funds to build even a scaled-back system.

Now a long-awaited state audit released last week finds that poor management has contributed to construction delays and billions of dollars of cost overruns. And inadequate contract controls left the auditor unable to determine whether the state received the quantity and quality of work it has paid for thus far.

It’s time to end this fiasco — to stop throwing good money after bad.

It’s an embarrassment to the state. To Gov. Jerry Brown, who has blindly pushed the project ever since he took office in 2011. And to Dan Richard, the chairman of the high-speed rail board since 2012 who perpetuates the notion that private investors are just around the next bend.

Yeah, right … and Mexico is going to pay for a border wall.

Yet lawmakers — especially Democratic lawmakers — continue to promote this pipe dream as a constructionjobs generator. Sure, it creates jobs — building a boondoggle.

If we’re going to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, let’s buy something the state badly needs — like, for example, housing, schools, highways or urban transit system improvements. Those would all create jobs too. And in the end the state would have something it could use.

Housing advocates, teachers, parents and commuters should all be outraged that precious public funds are being wasted on high-speed rail while critical needs across the state are going unmet.

California’s high-speed rail project has been built so far on a foundation of deceit.

A decade ago, voters were promised a system from San Diego to San Francisco and Sacramento at a cost of $45 billion. Today, the cost estimate is $77 billion just to link San Francisco to Anaheim.

And, after 10 years of work, the High-Speed Rail Authority has only managed to secure $12.7 billion, enough for links between Bakersfield and Madera, and from Gilroy to San Francisco. It doesn’t even have the money for tunneling needed to connect those two legs.

So much for a statewide system.

Worse, according to state Auditor Elaine Howle, there’s a high likelihood of additional cost increases. In other words, the constantly rising price is almost certain to go up more.

The audit closely examined the work so far in the Central Valley, where construction has begun. The auditor found that costs have been significantly higher than originally projected in large part because the authority did not complete critical planning tasks before moving forward with construction.

The authority failed to acquire needed land, determine how it would relocate utility systems or obtain needed agreements with local governments and other railroad operators, according to the audit.

That helps explain $600 million in changes to construction contracts so far and another $1.6 billion anticipated. This is just for the Central Valley, what was supposed to be the easy part of the bullet-train construction project.

For a decade now, state officials have misled Californians about the cost of highspeed rail. We were sold a bill of goods with Proposition 1A in 2008.

It’s time to demand an end to this. If Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom won’t apply the brakes, voters should step up with an initiative in 2020. Let’s stop this waste of scarce public money now.