In Capistrano, Harkey Continues Crusade Against High-Speed Rail

Californians can't afford a new high-speed rail, mid-year cuts to K-12 education are likely and and the state's economy is "incrementally bouncing back."

These were among the assertions cast by Assemblywoman  Wednesday in a forum with San Juan Capistrano constituents.

Most of her talk, which offered a broad overview of the state budget, was devoted to the rail issue. She's crusaded year-long against the expensive infrastructure project that she says will rip up farms and homes in the drought-ridden San Joaquin Valley and burden the cash-strapped state with more long-term debt.

Her campaign against the bullet train may have garnered more credibility Tuesday when the California High-Speed Rail Authority revised new cost estimates showing the first phase of the project from San Francisco to Anaheim would . 

On Wednesday, she urged the 60 individuals in attendance at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center to sign form letters to Gov. Jerry Brown, asking him to focus his political prowess on other issues, like easing taxes on businesses.

"Believe me there's no money for this," she said of the rail project. "It's really upsetting."

When asked if she could instead support enhancing the existing Amtrak rail and connect it to its valley end-point at Bakersfield into Southern California, Harkey said she could so long as it doesn't put the state into more debt.

California is encumbered with $90 billion in bond debt already. The bullet train has the potential to add another $6 to $7 billion to the load, she said, not including operational costs.

But the Rail Authority said Tuesday that without high speed rail, "California will need as much as $171 billion to meet its transportation needs. That means an additional 2,300 lane-miles of highways, 4 runways, and 115 airline gates will need to be built.“

On a brighter note, she said Orange County is helping to buoy the state. Although unemployment in the area remains high at 8.6 percent, it is comfortably below the statewide average of 11.4 percent, and far lower than many Central Valley counties where the jobless rate was as high as 16 percent in September.

And, there are signs that the California economy is improving, Harkey said. Although revenues have fallen short of the state's budget projections—by as much as $301.6 million September alone—she said there have been incremental improvements since last year.

The budget has built-in “triggers” for cuts if the revenues don’t flow. If the state comes up $2 billion short, it will start cutting funding for K-12 schools.

"I believe there will be an automatic reduction," Harkey said.

According to Chiang, total year-to-date general fund revenues are now behind the budget's estimates by $705.5 million.

"I hope I have not totally depressed you," Harkey concluded Wednesday. "We've just got more work to do."