V&T Didn't Get High-Speed Rail Funds, Commission Says...

No. 13 -- VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILWAY -- Nevada Railroad Reconstruction Chronicles

Well, our favorite commenter GPJoe has their facts wrong AGAIN!

GPJoe said, "'Jim from Reno' said $23 million was going to the project. Incorrect. Senator Reid was nice enough to send $500,000 to Northern Nevada in his Vegas to Anaheim railroad package. If it was $23 million it would finish the project and then some."

I am happy to report that according to the Nevada Commission to Reconstruct the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, they DID NOT get $500,000 of high speed rail funding.

I have to say, I know the history of this project better than some of the Commissioners, so having people comment with bad information doesn't help anyone.

HARRY REID'S MONEY IS YOUR MONEY

I must call attention to something else I find shocking about this whole process involving Federal funds. I hear many people saying, "Senator 'Dingy' Harry Reid gave us this money." Look at what GPJoe says, "Senator Reid was nice enough to send $500,000 to Northern Nevada in his Vegas to Anaheim railroad package."

When Harry Reid makes a donation out of his own pocket I will give him the credit. The truth is that the US taxpayer is providing the money with only the most indirect of representation in the process.

I think, psychologically speaking, it truly reveals the state of mind of a person who says, "Harry Reid gave us the money." This is the kind of person who sees federal taxpayer money as mailbox money or found money. It's decades of this type of thinking that has bloated the federal government well beyond the intention of the Constitution.

WILL 23 MILLION DOLLARS DO THE JOB?

Now, about the claim that $23 million would finish the project "and then some." That's also not true. If you listened to Mayor Marv's presentation in the Nevada Legislature in 2005, he claimed that the total project costs were $28-35 million, just four years ago.

More recently the Commission and the Nevada Appeal float a number of $55 million. However, when Jim Wrinn of Trains magazine wrote the news article in Trains recently, the numbers added up to $64 million. When I have sat down with others and looked at the whole shopping list, based on previous price increases, the whole project could go over $70 million.

Since the Commission already has $37 million in funding, and is looking at another $23 million, that brings the total up to $60 million. It's not quite enough to hit the $64 million mark quoted in Trains Magazine, but if they cut their shopping list, they could complete the project.

But there would be no "and then some." People who don't understand my criticisms sometimes have not taken the time to read the actual budgets and look at the real costs. For example, fifteen years later, the Commission is just now figuring out what some of the Carson River Canyon land will cost.

It's no wonder they're never been able to provide a complete, accurate, honest budget. They just don't know. All they know is to keep working on the project piecemeal and hope more funding comes in to keep going. This is not a typical well-managed, well-planned government project.

Otherwise, why would someone who works on the project go in front of the Carson City Supervisors in 2005 and say, "almost all the financing is in place." The scary part, I think they believe their own BS.

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