Letters: Sacrificing the bullet train for Prop. 30

Re “How to save Prop. 30,” Opinion, Nov. 2

I agree 100% with Dan Schnur’s suggestion that Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature should immediately drop support for high-speed rail. Continued support of this project would be the biggest cause of a Proposition 30 defeat.

With so many really important infrastructure projects that California desperately needs, to stubbornly cling to the rail project — especially by a governor who has substantially improved things in this state — is nothing short of suicidal.

The late Gov. Pat Brown, Jerry’s father, did the right thing. He built university campuses, freeways and dams.

But now we are giving spaces in our first-rate universities to higher-paying out-of-staters and foreigners at the expense of California’s kids.

There is still a need for Pat Brown’s insights in what to build, which would not include a budget-busting high-speed rail system.

Steven B. Oppenheimer

Northridge

I don’t want to save the Proposition 30 tax increase, but if Brown does, he should heed Schnur’s advice. There is no greater example of the government wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money than the “Browndoggle” of the bullet train.

When you realize that the interest on what the state will borrow to pay for the train could be used on education and the safety net for our neediest citizens, I do not see how we could vote to put more money into the hands of the people who do not manage that money responsibly.

Arthur L. Wisot

Rolling Hills Estates

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