http://www.mercurynews.com/california-high-speed-rail/ci_19881156"In an extremely unusual use of taxpayer money, the leaders behind California's $99 billion high-speed train quietly hired a lobbyist to sway the Legislature -- the same politicians who appointed them to build the project in the first place.
Documents filed this week show the California High-Speed Rail Authority last year paid $161,103 to one of the country's biggest public relations firms to lobby the state's politicians as they consider spending $2.7 billion to launch the polarizing bullet train project.
Rail officials paid the lobbyists by issuing debt that will total about $300,000 with interest. It must be paid back through California's impoverished general fund budget.
The lobbying revelation is the latest in a series of hits to the agency's credibility. In December, rail leaders backtracked on their projections that the bullet train will create 1 million jobs, after this newspaper reported the project would create only 20,000 to 60,000 jobs during a typical year.
Since voters approved the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles rail line in 2008, the railroad's cost has tripled, expected ridership counts have dwindled and the start date of full service has been pushed back 14 years."
These are the goofuses you wish to entrust $100,000,000,000 to?
