{"id":478825,"date":"2021-05-06T16:05:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=478825"},"modified":"2021-05-06T16:06:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:06:01","slug":"californias-high-speed-rail-is-a-boondoggle-with-inflated-jobs-numbers-regional-paper-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-high-speed-rail-is-a-boondoggle-with-inflated-jobs-numbers-regional-paper-says\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s High-Speed Rail Is A Boondoggle With Inflated Jobs Numbers, Regional Paper Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornias-high-speed-rail-is-a-boondoggle-with-inflated-jobs-numbers-regional-paper-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=478825&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207570500.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Democrats have long touted California\u2019s high-speed rail as an example of an alternative form of transportation, while reducing greenhouse gases and revitalizing the struggling Central Valley. As an added bonus, the state has repeatedly said the rail\u2019s construction would bring decent construction jobs to the Golden State. But now it\u2019s looking as though the state padded the rail\u2019s jobs numbers.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2021-05-06\/california-bullet-train-is-not-jobs-creator-some-claim\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>, banners in the San Joaquin Valley previously touted \u201c5,000 workers and counting\u201d near the rail\u2019s construction site. The problem, however, is the state \u201chas never had anywhere near 5,000 construction workers on the high-speed rail project at any one time,\u201d the Times concluded.<\/p>\n<p>While the state boasts 5,000 workers, it turns out the rail authority is counting the same employee multiple times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe boast of 5,000 jobs refers to the number of workers dispatched from union halls,\u201d the newspaper stated. \u201cEach time a worker is sent to a job site, whether for one day or hundreds of days, it counts as a job for the purpose of the banners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But this isn\u2019t a new phenomenon. Rail authority Chief Executive Brian Kelly told the Times the count is \u201ca valid measure of progress\u201d because the agency has done it that way \u201cfor years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even though the high-speed rail is supposed to have \u201cgood-paying jobs,\u201d a majority of the money is going to consulting firms, not construction workers, the paper discovered.<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"23\">\n<p><em>An internal report, which was obtained by The Times, noted that the construction program has generated a total of 3.9 million hours of craft labor between 2015, when construction began, and the end of February. The average direct pay, health coverage, pension contributions and other benefits to union labor run about $66 per hour, based on interviews with union officials and on the master labor agreement for Southern California.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It means that hourly workers have received about $265 million of the $6.1 billion that has been spent on construction, representing just 4%. Of the total $8.1 billion spent on the project, the labor portion is even smaller, 3%. The $265 million is less than what the rail authority spends every three months.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On top of those inflated numbers, the agency currently sits at roughly 1,000 jobs, after recently laying off roughly 200 people earlier in the year. The promise, however, is that those numbers will be doubled to almost 2,000 jobs in the next few years, Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>This is only one of the major issues facing the infrastructure project. Not only does the state lack adequate land to build on, but it\u2019s hemorrhaging money left and right. The largest major highway construction project in the state, the expansion of the 405 freeway in Southern California, cost $2.1 billion. The state spent roughly $1 million per day, with more than 1,000 workers on the site. The high-speed rail, in comparison, costs the state three-and-a-half times that amount per day and has roughly the same number of jobs.<\/p>\n<p>The bullet train was doomed since the state started building it in 2012. Not only are there physical barriers for the state to overcome, but there are billions \u2013 potentially trillions \u2013 being poured into a project that could easily come to a halt, either through geographic challenges or financial constraints.<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats have long touted California\u2019s high-speed rail as an example of an alternative form of transportation, while reducing greenhouse gases and revitalizing the struggling Central Valley. As an added bonus, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277482,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207570500.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"California\u2019s High-Speed Rail Is A Boondoggle With Inflated Jobs Numbers, Regional Paper Says","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207570500.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"California\u2019s High-Speed Rail Is A Boondoggle With Inflated Jobs Numbers, Regional Paper Says","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}