Rick Reiff On How The Guv Endorsed Completing The 241
Posted by: Jubal | 01/22/2008 4:57 PM
From this week's OC Insider by OC Business Journal Executive Editor Rick Reiff:Deficit, 241 Backers Persuaded Arnold
What prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to get off the fence and defy environmental activists, the California Coastal Commission staff and his brother-in-law (former State Parks Commission chairman Bobby Shriver) by endorsing the controversial extension of the Foothill (241) Toll Road? OC Supe and local transportation official Bill Campbell suggests the "tipping point" was the state's projected $14.5 billion budget deficit: With deep cuts looming for government services and projects, and his austere budget calling for the closure of many state parks, the growth-minded governor simply could not refuse a privately funded road that included a $100 million donation for improvements to three coastal parks. Schwarzenegger and his staff got on earful, too - calls from state Sen. Dick Ackerman and Congressman John Campbell, and persuasion from 241 consultants Gary Hunt and Ken Khachigian.Kudos to all above for their efforts in bringing the Governor around. Maybe this will be an instance of reason triumphing over hysteria and unthinking sentimentality.
Bill Campbell says when the guv met privately with a group of local executives prior to the New Majority's holiday party at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, "I think everyone of them said, "You've got to support this'"...
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241 Tollroad
You really think someone who wants to protect a popular State Park and some of the last coastal wild open space in the County is hysterical and unthinking? What is more economically valuable - a road or the State Park?? And regarding the $100 mil., why don't you admit it is a financial ruse based upon an unrealistic expectation that future lease payments to the Feds would be $70 mil. when they are actually only $1.
You really think someone who wants to protect a popular State Park and some of the last coastal wild open space in the County is hysterical and unthinking?
Yes, when such a person falsely makes any of the number of false claims advanced by 241 opponents.
What is more economically valuable - a road or the State Park??
You're presenting a false dichotomy, which is typical of the Enviro Left.
And regarding the $100 mil., why don't you admit it is a financial ruse based upon an unrealistic expectation that future lease payments to the Feds would be $70 mil. when they are actually only $1.
A "ruse" means there is no intention to pay the $100 million. And there is no reason to believe the TCA isn't serious. The lease payments are a $1 until the lease expires in 2021. If the state wants to renew the lease, it has to pay fair market value.
Somehow, you anti-241 types are always forgetting that inconvenient truth.
$100 million = .69 percent of this year's deficit.
If that truly was the tipping point for our guv's acquiescence on the 241, then his analytical skills leave something to be desired. What's next -- a heroic plan to pay down the deficit by forcing schoolchildren to collect aluminum cans? Every little bit helps!
Which state park can we whore out next year after the state comes up short again?
Which state park can we whore out next year after the state comes up short again?
Your analytical skills could use some sharpening, too. Not to mention a generous application of WD40.