Skelton: Will bullet train scuttle Jerry Brown’s tax plan?

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California voters approved some funding for high-speed rail in 2008, but since then public opinion has turned against the ambitious project as costs rose.

That hasn’t dampened Gov. Jerry Brown’s enthusiasm for high-speed rail, but the plan could hurt another one of his goals -- convincing voters to raise taxes in November.

George Skelton writes in his Thursday column that voters don’t want their state government to pump billions of dollars into high-speed rail at the same time its asking them to pay more in taxes.

‘Brown is trying in every way possible to convince voters they can trust state government with their tax money,’ said Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist who is director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. ‘But his own high-speed rail project could pull the rug right out from under that effort.’

You can find all of Skelton’s columns here.

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