Fox News has a handy tax calculator up so you can see how many of your tax dollars will go to this $53 billion boondoggle. For example, if your income is $100,000, then $654.60 goes for the high-speed choo-choo.
To put this 654.60 in perspective, it’s 85 miles between Tampa and Orlando, the high-speed route that Gov. Scott of Florida just refused Federal funds to develop. With a car getting 20 mpg burning $4 a gallon gas, the trip would cost roughly $17 if you drove. So it would take 40 trips between Tampa and Orlando to equal the tax burden in our example — and that doesn’t include the cost of the rail ticket.
What’s more, the $53 billion doesn’t finish ANY rail project, it just gets the country pregnant with high-speed rail. The faster high-speed rail heads to the ash heap of history, the better.
I wonder what would happen if taxpayers were given the ability to individually defund a set number of federal projects by withholding their own taxes. Of course there would have to be limits, or we might defund congress, the Supremes, (or aid to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood when they take over Egypt and we sure wouldn't want to be restricted in a culturally insensitive way like that).
That might make states a little more hesitant to grab for your federal and state gold, too, if they could have the matching fed funds "vanished" based on how folks (and businesses) filed their federal tax returns.
High Speed Rail?
The Volt subsidy?
James Hansen's salary?
Sweet.
Now back to reality.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI live in Orlando, years ago they tried to get a high-speed rail from the Orlando International airport to Disney all the way to Cape Canaveral. It ended up costing to much and Disney who would of been the primary benficary refused to fund almost any of it. A ticket was going to run like $30 dollars one way per person from the airport to the cape. One can take a limo for about $60 between the two places right now. Disney ended using buses.
I have talked to a lot of people and they are for it but I doubt they will use it. The problem is one has to use buses to get around Tampa and Orlando if one will use the train. They are decent systems but it takes two to three times longer getting some were via bus verses ones own car. It is not like parking in the down town areas is horribly expenses either. $10 at the most and go a few miles away and one can find plenty of free places. I rather they spend that money and widen I-4, which has horrible traffic.
The set-up is actually quite good from a contract stand point. It is a fixed price contract to build everything and operate it for ten years. So tax payers will have no cost over-runs until the state takes over after the 10 year operating period.
It is funny for years it has been in our state constitution to build a high speed rail to connect the 5 major metropolitan areas in Florida. The State legislator tried to get voters to remove it to no avail and has done almost nothing to fund it. So instead the federal government is funding our stupidity. The Miami/Ft. Lauderdale light rail system was almost 200 million dollars in the hole last year. I doubt anyone can operate the train between Tampa and Orlando at a profit. The winner will make all the money off the construction to off-set the losses during the operation period.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think it kind of telling when Disney has made no major expansions to its own internal monorail system, the new areas are served by buses. Trains are cool, but they don't make much sense anywhere.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you, every tax paying or concerned American needs to write his or her Congressperson and voice nay to this "boondoggle". The greatest rail project was the Transcontinental Railroad built by Union Pacific and Central Pacific not the Federal government. Yes, the government provided huge land subsidies but that was it. Business saw a need and exploited it, their capital was at risk not the taxpayer's. Americans are not a linear people, we like the freedom of driving in our car, most of the time. We will never be the people to be shoved into a railcar taking us to point A or B. This is the best a Harvard educated lawyer could come up with - a dream of an expensive choo choo. He must of daydreamed during all of his corporate business meetings, before he went into politics. Oh that's right, I forgot, he never worked in a business or participated in a corporation's planning meeting. He was a community organizer. Has anyone ever realized that community organizers never finish organizing the communities? They always need more money and time to finish the job.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse