The following article is from a Flash Report link to an Op-Ed written by Chris Reed exposing Curt Pringle’s spin on the high speed rail subsidy. I recall contacting Chris when he “was the opinion-page columns editor and wrote the featured weekly Unspin column for The Orange County Register.” He is now an editorial writer for the Union-Tribune.
Here is his report as published in yesterday’s edition of Sign on San Diego.
As Prop 1A did not provide for any public subsidy for this massive project the CHSRA is looking for a back door way to entice venture capital investment by consideration of a “ridership guarantee.” Nice try Curt.
The SF Gate and Sign on San Diego links are provided for verification.
Deceptive op-ed from chair of bullet-train board
Chris Reed
Friday, April 2, 2010
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle completely ignores the biggest and possibly insurmountable problem with the bullet-train proposal in his S.F. Chronicle piece today.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/02/ED0R1COIGP.DTL
Here’s his some of his hooey:
So today, we are having a statewide discussion with those cities and communities. It is a critical part of building this system, which the voters said they want and which the president and Congress stand firmly behind. For some, this discussion means a focus on the risks of building, mostly from people in one of two camps: First, those who think it will cost too much, and second, those who are concerned about impacts on people and communities near the rail lines.
No, Mr. Mayor, these aren’t the two main elements of the “discussion” now going on. Instead, the “discussion” is focusing on the fact the California High-Speed Rail Authority has an illegal business plan that would require future taxpayer subsidies.
Yo, Curt! Can’t you ever address that forthrightly? Please?
What Curt leaves out, from a previous screed on this topic:
On Jan. 11, the Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a terse eight-page report on the latest business plan for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. … Besides depicting the business plan as vague and insubstantive, the LAO analysis noted its funding plan “appears to violate” Proposition 1A language that “explicitly prohibits any public operating subsidy.” That’s because authority officials concluded they couldn’t attract the necessary tens of billions of dollars in private funding without offering investors a minimum revenue guarantee. To attract investors, the plan also presumed that government agencies would cover the vast cost of insurance for rail operations…
This is not a minor problem. This is an immense and fundamental problem. No subsidies, no investors. No investors, no high-speed rail.
After Pringle downplayed this problem in an e-mail to me, I went directly to Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who said the revenue guarantee “did seem to be in direct violation” of the no-subsidy promise. Taylor was also highly skeptical of the idea that a ridership guarantee could be substituted for a revenue guarantee.
Why isn’t Pringle writing about this? Why is this huge PR apparatus gearing up to present the bullet train system as an inevitably when the LAO has issued such a basic warning about the illegality of its funding blueprint?
I’ve got a bad feelling about high-speed rail. I think it’s going to be the California version of the D.C. debate over health care. They’re going to force it down our throats — even if it is brazenly illegal.
Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/americas-finest/2010/apr/02/deceptive-op-ed-chair-bullet-train-board
Pringle’s spinning and complicity in trying to sell this fraud to California taxpayers has cost him ALL the years of credibility he carefully built while mayoring Anaheim. Once regarded as business-friendly, tax-averse and ‘the man’ when it came to development around Disney )and what seemed a good idea at the time, the Platinum Triangle), his association with this debacle has cost him the trust and loyalty of the many conservatives and moderates who respected his judgment, intelligence and fair dealing.
Why he’s decided to push this travesty upon us is beyond reason. Combine this never-to-be-funded train and all the corruption surrounding it up until now, before a foot of track’s even been laid, with his incessant promotion of a multi-million dollar Measure M-funded train palace in Anaheim, and one can understand of how a rising political “star” could be so stupid as to call out poll guards to protect his political interests a few years ago. ARTIC’s potential has already been decided — NO private funding has been offered in support of it — and Pringle was counting on that to get his edifice built. He now expects this barn to be built with public money while Metrolink train and OCTA bus services will be or are already cut.
His support of this rail debacle is beyond stupid, and is SO dumb that is should cost him what’s left of his career. Every number, every strategy (such as it exists — where is a real business plan?), every projection involving high-speed rail is WRONG and UNSUPPORTABLE. The Reason Foundation blew more holes through the CHSRA plans and costs than ARTIC would have windows. Pringle’s never been able to counter their excellent analysis, so he and other frothing rail advocates like Calitics’ Robert Cruikshank ignore it and demean the opposition.
Pringle’s had it. He’s washed up. Done. His arguments for this travesty are as empty as the Platinum Triangle. Shame on him for trying to sell us this piece of crap.
Curt is a good guy. He obviously has the strong support and backing of the “New Majority” wing of the California Republic Party. Curt has good ideas which will create jobs for Californians. Curt has the connections to get both the Federal and the State money which it will take to create and take these large projects through to completion. Take the personalities out of it…for a minute. We can easily remain in the 19th Century Transportation mode….for another 100 years, or we make a giant step toward the future and for that of our progeny. What do they say? What kind of world do you want your children to live in? Oh, forgot…..no one has children anymore! Too bad!
What garbage. Curt’s in it for Curt. His connections haven’t coughed up a dime. A project like CHSRA would be questionable in a good economic climate given how dishonestly it’s been presented. In today’s climate, it’s just sop to the unions. Wouldn’t you two pansies be more comfortable elsewhere? Leave this BS on the OC Progressive if it’s still in business.
Ranunculas…please! They are at least toxic when ingested! OC Progressive huh? You carry that water and card…. do you?
Think you have been watching “Sleeping with the Enemy” too much!
The ARTIC Transpo Ctr. and the CA Bullet Rail should not be confused with the ill fated and very stupid:
OC Light Rail.
Ron & Anna.
We buried the High Speed rail which would have served local residents. How many local, lower and middle income, citizens will ever ride the bullet train from Curt Pringle’s ARTIC station in Anaheim to SF or SAC?
While Obama primed the pump, his $2.5 billion stimulus contribution is less than 5% of the total cost. Where is Curt going to find the balance without a public subsidy which is not permitted under Prop 1A?
Easter greetings to the staff and readers of the Orange Juice Blog.
Check this out: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-train4-2010apr04,0,226389.story. Seems the local transit “gurus” are sticking it to Pringle as well. You’d think an OCTA Board member like Pringle would get some respect from its current and past CEOs. Seems his Curtness should have some ‘splainin to do to his Board members and all the folks in Anaheim who’d be losing “hundreds” of homes from this disaster. Or doesn’t that matter to you two?