How taxpayers were taken for a ride on the train to nowhere
What moves faster than California’s high-speed rail, nearly 20 years in the making with zero track laid?Well, almost anything, apparently.But in this case, we mean the evident bilking of taxpayers.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.
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Never miss a story As the California Post recently reported: Per the project’s own inspector general, high-speed rail consultants collected more than $680,000 in dubious travel reimbursements — including for first-class plane tickets, international jaunts and rides to places like gyms, tiki rooms and nightclubs.Taxpayers even covered bills for a flight via private aircraft, Uber Black luxury service, and rides from clubs at 2:30 a.m.That’s galling — and yet another reason to bring the troubled project to a halt.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!California’s high-speed rail experiment, dubbed “the train to nowhere” for its uselessness, has failed.Among the lowlights: a “shadow government” of consultants that effectively ran the troubled project and approved their own work — detailed in a blistering 2018 California State Auditor report.Now, the California High Speed Rail Authority admits, again, that it lets consultants run the asylum.While the authority has failed to curb consultants gone wild, the project’s budget is untenable: High-speed rail is projected to run dry of cash in 2027, the audit found.Who can justify pouring more tax money into this mess?At least one candidate for governor gets it: Steve Hilton, on the ballot Nov.3, has pledged to halt taxpayer fun...