Good money after bad...

"He went on to say the funding system had produced an incentive to overestimate ridership and underestimate costs."

My political mentor, who is right way more often than he is wrong, was right again on this one. Last year, when it appeared our legislature was going to stand strong and not fund the Southwest Light Rail (SWLRT), I was ebullient! I called my friend and mentor up and gloated by saying, "Looks like we killed huge big waste of money!" His response was not as cheerful. He said (and I will paraphrase), "No you didn't. The fix is in. They will find the money and build it anyway." Today in the paper was a story that the feds now think all the right gates have been passed, all the boxes checked. They will now approve a billion dollars to come our way to finish this damn thing.

This story comes right on top of finding out the Metropolitan Council is running out of money. Seems they are running almost $90M in the red. Funny thing about that - earlier in the year they scraped up just about the same amount (actually $145M) to keep the SWLRT on life support.

This is a line that many will pay for, and very few will ride. I will now tell you something which will really get your blood boiling. In 1992, a transportation economist named Don Pickrell made a stunning comment when it comes to the federal funding of transportation. First off, the federal system favors expensive rail systems over bus systems, as that is where the money is. And now comes the kicker. He went on to say the funding system has produced an incentive to overestimate ridership and underestimate costs. In other words, get the thing built and then let the locals pay for the operating losses. You can't make this crap up!

I will tell you what this reminds me of. When the (Un)Affordable Care Act was being hatched, Dr. Jonathan Gruber was one of the architects. In 2014, he was caught on tape saying, "the stupidity of the American voter" allowed this bill to pass. And the "lack of transparency" by the Obama team was deliberate. My take? I don't see a dime's bit of difference between how ObamaCare was shoved down our throats and all these rail projects are also forced on us. Once again, we are being treated like subjects instead of citizens.

If the feds truly release the final billion dollars under Trump's watch (with a Republican led Congress), I am not only going to be pissed, but also mystified. Now that we control the purse strings in the federal government as well as the state, somebody a whole lot smarter than I would have to explain that one to me. If we do go ahead and finish this thing, and it runs at a deficit like the other lines do, who is going to pick up that tab? That is correct - us once again.

How much longer are we going to spend good money after bad? President Elect Trump is very concerned about the costs of the new Air Force One as well as the F-35 program. He should also be very concerned about the cost of this federally funded boondoggle.