The Heartland Institute

The California high-speed rail project cannot be delivered at the cost promised to taxpayers, is based upon a business plan incapable of delivering on its legal requirements and is justified by proponents based upon unachievable benefits Reason Foundation’s 2008 report, The California High Speed Rail Proposal: A Due Diligence Report ...

This Taxpayer Risk Assessment examines the financial risks to taxpayers of the proposed XpressWest high-spreed rail project from Victorville to Las Vegas. There would be no need for a Taxpayer Risk Analysis without government (taxpayer) involvement. For example, if a bus company were to establish a new service between Victorville ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

Federal, state and local governments are considering or have implemented policies that seek to reduce human emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). This study seeks to assess the relative merits of specific policies intended to reduce GHGs from automobiles. (It does not consider whether or not reductions in GHGs are actually desirable ...

Government subsidies represent capital purposefully redirected into unprofitable enterprises. The rationale for a subsidy comes when the government decides that a necessary product or service cannot be delivered by free-market mechanisms. It is an intentional diversion of capital to fill a gap between what a service costs to provide ...

The purpose of this Due Diligence Report is to examine the proposal to build a California highspeed rail system (HSR) between the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego via the San Joaquin Valley. The general plan is to build a system of from 700 to 800 miles with an initial state general obligation ...

An ominous storm cloud is gathering across the horizon as American governments try to pay for the lucrative pension promises made to their employees. And these clouds are not just over a few skies. They are virtually everywhere. Government employee pension systems across the nation are in crisis. The city of San Diego is now ...