Diane Harkey Tries to Kill High-Speed Rail Financing

One woman stands in its way...

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State assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point, etc.) has proposed a law to stop California's high-speed rail project... in its tracks. To derail it. To cause it to lose steam. To, uh, poo-poo the choo-choo.

The Mercury News reports that Harkey has introduced legislation that would put the kibosh on the voter-approved sale of $9.5 million in bonds to pay for the planning and construction of the proposed rail line that would connect, at its ends, San Fransisco and Fresno to Anaheim and San Diego.

The project has been the target of criticisms, varying in credibility, as to its financing, ridership projections and environmental impact.

"It's a lot of money at a time when we have overspent," Harkey said, according to the Mercury News. "Is this something we should really have right now?

She makes it sounds like we're springing for an extra wing of the house or our third Tesla. Then again, some people say those are pretty apt comparisons.

High-speed rail boosters, though, don't seem all that alarmed.

"My guess is that it won't go very far," Rod Diridon Sr. of the California High Speed Rail Authority said of Harkey's bill to the Mercury News. "It's interesting that one person has tried to put herself above the people of the state of California."