GILROY – California residents want another chance to weigh-in on the state’s controversial and expensive high-speed rail project, according to a poll of 1,000 voters released this week. And if given the opportunity, the majority of them wouldn’t vote to approve the project again, the poll shows.
Voters originally approved $9 billion in bonds in November 2008 to kickstart the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s massive endeavor, but recent financial reports and growing criticism have soured public opinion, according to the poll, conducted by the Field Research Corporation.
Project costs have more than doubled to $98.5 billion, according to an updated Rail Authority business plan released Nov. 1, and the project completion date has been delayed more than a decade. In addition, the Rail Authority has only $16 billion in the bank to begin construction in the San Joaquin Valley, and a recent report by the state’s Legislative Analyst Office says the project’s funding plan is flawed and its environmental efforts are incomplete.
Of those surveyed, 64 percent would ask the state legislature to call for a re-vote on the project. If a second vote was held, 59 percent would reject the bond package.
In a statement released earlier this week, the Rail Authority encouraged voters to keep faith in the project.
“High-speed rail will use more than $3 billion in federal aid to create 100,000 jobs and give California the transportation infrastructure it needs to compete in the 21st century. To back pedal on this project means we reject billions in stimulus funds, lose 100,000 new jobs and, ultimately, pay tens of billions more for congested highways in the long run,” the statement reads. “The uncertain economy may give some voters pause, but this kind of infrastructure investment and job creation is exactly what we need at this time and we will be making that case to Californians across the state who voted to start this project in 2008.”
Seventy-seven percent of those who participated in the poll has seen, heard or read about the project. The poll was completed by telephone November 15-27 in English and Spanish using a random sample of this state’s registered voters.
Democrats (57 percent) and Republicans (66 percent) alike favored a re-vote, according to the study. Of non-partisan voters polled, 73 percent would ask for a re-vote.
