The Pork Report: October 13, 2009

Psssssttt ! A word to you " fiscally conservative " bastions of financial accountability and integrity at your state level. Why would you allow the federal government to fund your states capital pork budget and then allow it to bankrupt your states OPERATING BUDGET for a supressive pork program when you assume financial responsibility for that particular program a few years later ?

Did you guys ever study accounting or budgets in college ? Or is this just plain old fashioned greed and larceny in your hearts at the expense of your citizens.

Call me sometime….would be happy to steer you in the right fiscal direction….WITHOUT POLITICAL BRIBES AND FAVORS !

The streetcar to nowhere. Another sacred cow of the Left which has almost has the same cult-like following as Global Warming and Environmentalism has. Way too often, public transit rail projects are built for political purposes rather than true transportation purposes. The Atlanta Peachtree streetcar proposal is once such animal.

Light rail & streetcar lines are inherently expensive to build and operate. Rail is needed in many places I admit, however they are rarely designed to be operated efficiently or effectively nor are they often built in existing high ridership corridors where they truly are needed and stand a chance of real success. The hope of politicians and transit agencies that ram through rail proposals is that rail will be the savior of the cash-strapped city as well as the cash-strapped transit system. In most cases, it only puts a further strain on the already tight finances.

Advocates love citing lower pollution and being green as reasons for pushing rail. In most cases, rail only shifts pollution from the rail car to the power plant. The overall environmental impact of rail transit is much more than the advocates say when you factor in everything from manufacture, delivery, construction and maintenance. A bus line has less of an impact when all items are factored in.

A few of the dirty little secrets that rail advocates don't want you to know are these:

1. Rail projects never are built at or under budget. They are often 1/3 or more higher than the estimate.
2. Ridership estimates used to grab funding are wildly over inflated in addition to the original estimated cost of the project being wildly understated.
3. Economic benefits cited with most rail projects are just a shell game. Hundreds of millions are spent luring developers to build around stations. Studies have shown that in most cases, that development would occur anyway without spending tax money. The money spent on luring developers never shows up on the ledger of the transit project so is conveniently ignored by proponents of rail. This development money often meets the cost of the rail line itself so a $300 million taxpayer funded rail line actually ends up costing taxpayers around $600 million plus.
4. Most cities pushing rail can't afford to operate the bus system already in place. Once rail comes into play, bus service will get eliminated for those dependent on it in other parts of the city to pay to operate the rail line.
5. Rail isn't the cure for traffic congestion nor pollution as advocates love to tout. Study after study of rail lines show an increase in traffic in rail corridors as well as increased air pollution from the increased traffic in the area.

I could go on for months on this subject as I have studied public transportation for decades. Public transit can be run efficiently and effectively (and has been even by a few government agencies in the 70's). The problem is that transit systems, politicians and advocates today won't let it be run that way.