Maggie's Farm

"Gentry Liberals Are Going to Force Your Town to Buy Billion-Dollar Toy Trains and There's Nothing You Can Do About It"

This is driven by the labor unions and vote buying. You would be astounded to find out what common labor is paid in these construction jobs. Then once completed the workers milk the public coffers putting yur community into bankrutcy It does seem that they are going to do this with or without you. In Portland their Max train was voted down but the city and Metro did it anyway. The Max train is pretty but in fact it costs so much and serves so few that for tha same cost the government could have bought every Max rider a brand new Mercedes.
In states that allow citizens to place initiatives (or ballot measures) on the ballot you can fight it but it will take some effort. Drive a stake through the heart of this with dramatic initiatives. Demand that the city or county defund public transportation. Sounds dramatic but the core of this problem is the unions using public money to expand their base, their wages and benefits. It is never ending and you aren't going to stop this by nibbling around the edges. Stop the subsidies and get the taxpayers off the hook.

The significance of the cost of Max is all the more important when you understand that all of the Max routes simply replaced an existing bus line. If the goal was to provide a reasonable cost public transport system there was one already in existence. A part of the decision to go to light rail is that the anti-private car lobby of Portland has this dream of a car free America. I suspect that for that lobby busses and their use of pubic streets was also something they want to eliminate. Understand that Portland Or. not just left leaning they have toppled over onto their heads from leaning so far left. They make socialist blush and anarchist cheer. If they could they would ban cars altogether and only allow bikes on the roads.
For what it's worth a note to anyone living in a city that is planning to implement light rail. Portland discovered that a light rail station equates to increased crime. The gangs and the unorganized thugs use light rail to go to the better parts of town to commit crimes. So a light rail station within 1/4 mile or so of your house translates into higher risk for you and your family of being mugged, beat up, knifed or shot. Also simply riding the light rail after the rush hour dies down is life threatening.