Durham Mayor Bill Bell told The News & Observer yesterday that the high-speed rail millions that the state is trying to get from the feds is important for job creation:
Bell promoted the rail program as “a job-creation project,” citing DOT’s projection for 4,800 engineering and construction jobs.
“In the first five years, North Carolina will spend approximately $15 million,” Bell said. “How often do we have the opportunity to create jobs in North Carolina for as little a state investment as this requires?”
That 4,800-job figure figures prominently in the rhetoric of everyone pushing this boondoggle. But it turns out to be grossly inflated. And the insidious part is that the federal DOT, the NCDOT and everyone pushing this “stimulus” project knows it.
Bell and other project backers need to watch Anthony Greco’s Carolina Journal TV report on the deception: