Posted on 10/29/2010 5:46:52 AM PDT by agee
Public Works: A fiscally responsible governor takes on the money-is-no-object school, and the taxpayers win. And no, killing that tunnel under the Hudson is not a blow to national greatness.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made it official this week, deciding to pull his state out of a project to build a new rail tunnel between his state and Manhattan. It was about the money, he said. He could not, in good conscience, leave his state's taxpayers on the hook for potentially billions of dollars in cost overruns.
When you look at how the 8.8-mile tunnel was to be financed, you can see what Christie's talking about.
The stated price tag is $8.7 billion, of which New Jersey was to contribute $2.7 billion, with the federal government and Port Authority of New York & New Jersey splitting the rest.
But no one seems to take the official number seriously.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood now says the cost could be held to $9.8 billion with "aggressive cost-control measures," but could go much higher — to as high as $12.7 billion.
The costs would soar even further if the tunnel project follows the trajectory of Boston's Big Dig, which tripled in price from a $5 billion estimate at its groundbreaking to $14.8 billion when it was finally finished. Seeing no way to protect his financially struggling state from this new fiscal tsunami, Christie declined, as he put it, to "hand over a blank check."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Christie really is doing a great job.
The two take-away quotes from this editorial are that no one takes the cost estimates seriously and that Christie “could not, in good conscience, leave his state’s taxpayers on the hook for potentially billions of dollars in cost overruns.”
That, in a nutshell is the most significant problem we face as a nation today and the proper conservaive response. Every government program—whether its public works or entitlements—have cost estimates that no one takes seriously, yet no politician has the good conscience to vote no—including way too may “conservatives” in Congress.
I wonder if "finally finished" includes the repairs, required nearly immediately after it was opened for use, for those giant steel plates that fell from the ceiling, or the settlement(s) for the estates of the people killed as a result.
Christie has not only saved his state the expense of this boondoggle but he has also saved the Federal government 14 billion and possibly more by nixing it. Unfortunately, the Dems in Congress will find another boondoggle project to blow the money he saved them.
Let investors like Macquarie do the math. If it works, they’ll fund it. Also, why not let the market take the lead with buses and ferries.
“I wonder if “finally finished” includes the repairs, required nearly immediately after it was opened for use, for those giant steel plates that fell from the ceiling, or the settlement(s) for the estates of the people killed as a result.
Apparently not, as $14.8B was the cost estimate as of 2006. This figure also apparently excluded $7B in interest costs to pay back the loans used to bankroll this boondoggle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig
Do you want to stop cost overruns? Make the projects fixed price. Apply liquidated damage clauses to the contracts. Any and all cost overruns are paid for by deducting the cost from congresses salary - collectively.
Then watch how project stay on schedule and under budget.
(I know - I’m dreaming)
I wonder if there is one other Republican governor who is even close to his toughness? Haley Barbour? He had his chance with the oil spill and misssed it. Mitch Daniel? RINO. Who else?
Christie faces them down. he gihts for his principles. It’s sad we find real integrity amazing these days.
Exactly. The ongoing maintenance is propably a drain of state and local taxes, while the tolls are insufficient to meet the pension and benefits pobligation to the public workers.
And by no means do I want him to run for in ‘12. Too early.
‘16 sounds just fine to me....
Sweet. But then they would have to read the bill.
CO2 is plant food.
him to run for in ‘12. Too early
run for POTUS in ‘12. No coffee yet...
Would you dare to believe that that’s how they do it for some highway repair projects in California?:
“A contractor with a proven track record of rebuilding damaged freeways (most notably the Santa Monica Freeway after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake) well ahead of schedule, C. C. Myers, Inc., submitted a winning bid of $876,075 to repair the damage to the I-580 connector. The bid was estimated to cover only one-third of the cost of the work, but the firm counted on making up the shortfall with an incentive of $200,000 per day if the work was completed before June 27, 2007.[12]
“On the evening of Thursday, May 24, the I-580 connector re-opened, just before the busy Memorial Day weekend. The deadline to finish the project was beaten by over a month, with the contractor earning the $5 million bonus for early completion.[13] The entire reconstruction project was completed only 26 days after the original accident.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Maze
Christie has brass ones.
If we run a wimp in 2012 and lose, Obama’s damage may be permanent. If we run a RINO in 2012 and that person gets, two terms. We are dead that way too. The go-along-to-get-along, weak-willed, gutless Pubbies will kill us just as surely as the Commies who SET THE AGENDA. We know Christie would FIGHT! And he is smart enough to prepare himself intellectually. No amount of Washington experience can give you that. In fact it gives you the opposite.
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