California, prone to earthquakes, has approved a high speed rail project. Really? And how much faster will CA residents be able to travel from San Diego to San Francisco? Maybe save a few hours - at best. This looks like a highway for illegals traveling north as well.
Who really benefits from this high speed rail project? The union members who will build it and the union members who will run the trains. That means more pension expense for the state. But the towns along Highway 5 or 101 will lose all that business from drivers that would travel through these towns to gas-up and grab a bite to eat or even sleep over on their way - just like the towns along highway 66 that lose most of their business when highway 66 was replaced.
So lets look at this financially.
Less city and town sales taxes.
Less local gasoline taxes.
Small businesses that depend on the traffic from people driving up and down CA will close.
More local people will be out of jobs.
Less jobs means less Social Security and medicare taxes will be received into the US Treasury.
More unemployment means more stress on the CA's state deficit - almost as large as Greece's debt.
All this means that many CA cities and towns will have to increase real estate taxes.
And why are we building this high-speed rail system???
Because the unions want this project.
Everyone else in CA will lose.
And that's the way I see it...
Straight Talk with Jay Clifford
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