High Cost Rail - Part 96 3 Wins for the Taxpayers

I'm sure there will be more news coverage like this bit from the SacBee, but I got a quick brief straight from one of the most informed people in the country on today's ruling.  He writes

A short while ago, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on Part One of the case Tos, Fukuda and Kings County versus the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

This ruling rescinds the Authority's Funding Plan and therefore the ability of the State of California to match federal funds used for construction.  In short, all federal monies spent on construction to date and from henceforth will be all that can be spent on construction. There will be no access to matching funds.  And to date it is only federal money spent (wasted) on construction.

Judge Kenny also ruledin favor of Defendants (the people of California) in the Validation Suit filed by the State in an attempt to disallow suits against the Authority  This ruling allows further lawsuits to be filed, as well as raises sveral questions about the legality of the conduct of the Authority.

Nice way to start the week!  A lot of people have put a lot of personal time and money into this effort and they deserve the thanks of every taxpayer in the state.

Comments

[jennifer]

Finally some sanity! This surely won't be the end of it, but presents some formidable challenges for the Rail Authority, and Brown. Maybe he can give some thought to an alternate Legacy project.

[Joe]

The Mercury News weighs in on the ruling. I'm only posting the section leading up to my favorite descriptor: "fraud"
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A Superior Court judge Monday slowed the California bullet train boondoggle to a crawl.

It's about time. For more than two years, Gov. Jerry Brown and his puppet leading the California High-Speed Rail Authority board, Dan Richard, have overstepped their legal authority and disregarded the will of the voters by pushing ahead full-throttle.

Judge Michael Kenny had ruled in August that the authority "abused its discretion" by failing to secure funds and complete environmental reviews before authorizing expenditures.

This week, he sent the project back to the start by blocking the authority from implementing its 2011 spending plan and refusing to provide necessary legal blessing to the misguided issuance of $8.6 billion of construction bonds.

By any reasonable interpretation, this should put an end to Brown and Richard's bait-and-switch. But, when it comes to high-speed rail, those two aren't reasonable.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Richard tried to deceptively spin what the judge had said. True, as Richard notes, the judge did not stop the project. Rather he left it with no funding plan and the inability to borrow money.

Until the feds start to realize they've been had, there's still a bit of money left from Washington. But it won't last long. It's hard to imagine how the project can continue to move forward.

It's time to put an end to this fraud.

You can read the rest here: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_24600280/mercury-news-editorial-high-speed-rail-ruling-is?source=rss

[Ron Fulderon]

I'm kind of surprised that this recent court decision didn't bring out more celebratory comments here. This was a big win for all us fiscal conservatives that wanted to stop the world's most expensive construction project.

Not sure what would happen if the dems got control of the house again next year and printed up even more money to ship to california to fund this thing but for now it looks like HSR will not be going through Burlingame.

[jennifer]

Yes, it is a huge, long-awaited win, Ron. I'm totally with you in the celebrations. The post got lost in the Caltrans vs. Trees mess-- (In a sense, sort of a mini HSR-like crisis. They got the money earmarked, and they want to spend it all on destructive nonsense.)

I am wondering what Jerry is cooking up. I'll bet it is the Cap and Trade scheme. He's NOT going to give up, yet, at least I don't think so. He's been really quiet about this judgement, no? Something is up.

[pat giorni]

A major blow in the war of a thousand cuts quite near the femoral artery...

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/12/04/3647522/feds-deny-request-for-early-ok.html

A federal oversight board has turned down a request from the California High-Speed Rail Authority for conditional authorization to build the Fresno-Bakersfield section of the proposed statewide bullet-train line.

In a decision announced Wednesday, the three-member Surface Transportation Board denied the state's request for an expedited decision on the 114-mile Fresno-Bakersfield route before environmental work is completed on the section.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/12/04/3647522/feds-deny-request-for-early-ok.html#storylink=cpy

We won't be seeing Caltrain Electrification, much less HSR, if the hits like these just keep comin'

[jennifer]

Wow, with a Thanksgiving season like this, I'd expect Grinch Brown to say or do something to plug the dike before Christmas.

[Locavore]

I know felicitations are in order but at this juncture I'm so skeptical that this project will actually ever fully die, seemed like this should have happened a long time time ago. It's like a bad zombie movie or a cockroach that survives a nuclear war.

[Joe]

Here is a write-up by a very knowledgeable journalist about Moonbeam's latest ploy:

The Attorney General’s office filed a 61 page legal brief with the California Supreme Court, effectively by-passing the Appellate Court. They asked the California Supreme court to order a “stay”for the Tos/Fukuda/Kings County ruling which required the Authority to rescind it’s funding plan since it didn’t follow the law in voter bond measure. It seems to be a desperate tactic since they are running out of money with a requirement to begin spending state funds April 1st to match federal funds already spent.

The rest is here:

http://www.examiner.com/article/brown-asks-the-california-supreme-court-for-relief-for-high-speed-train-project#sthash.TeESIxH9.dpuf

Care to bet how quickly the courts get around to this one--forget all that news you read about things being backed-up.