EDITORIAL: Money to burn

If there’s one thing at which California’s progressive political class excels, it’s burning through taxpayer money.

Whether it’s throwing billions at the homeless problem with little result or tossing billions more down the drain on a doomed high-speed rail project, state lawmakers have repeatedly shown their disdain for fiscal responsibility.

Even seemingly mundane infrastructure projects in the Golden State manage to soak the taxpayers. Remember the $20,000 trash bins in San Francisco? And now we have the ongoing Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project over U.S. Highway 101 near Los Angeles in Agoura Hills, a story of California inertia and excess in action.

Ten years ago, officials proposed a bridge to allow animals to cross the Ventura Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Los Angeles Times reports that a dozen mountain lions and one black bear have been killed in vehicle collisions in the area over the past two decades. Wildlife officials also believe that the freeway blocks mountain lion migration that could help bring new genetic material to an increasingly isolated population.

The project — shocker! — has been beset by delays and is now expected to be open by the end of next year for a whopping $92 million, which includes a $58 million contribution from state taxpayers. The bridge will be the most expensive such endeavor in the country. Why spare any expense when you’re spending other people’s cash?

“The final work,” the Times reports, “will be planting more native shrubs, perennials and trees on the shoulders and adding two miles of galvanized steel fencing on either side of the crossing to funnel animals over the crossing and away from human-made roadways and homes.” In addition, “Hundreds of native plants that were grown from seed in the project’s nearby nursery will be planted on the crossing this fall.”

What does a specialized nursery have to do with protecting mountain lions?

For comparison, Nevada has nearly a dozen wildlife overpasses or underpasses. A crossing on Interstate 80 near Elko cost $2.2 million. Utah completed its Parleys Canyon Wildlife Overpass seven years ago for $5 million, 25 percent the per-square-foot cost of California’s Taj Majal of wildlife crossings. While there are no doubt different engineering challenges for California’s project, the point remains.

As Nathanial Robkin of Reason magazine noted, simply importing a handful of mountain lions from other regions would likely shore up the population in the Santa Monica Mountains at a far cheaper price tag. “Considering an average bridge lifespan of about 100 years,” he wrote this week, “moving the animals is far more cost-effective approach to preservation than the bridge.”

Seeking to minimize wildlife deaths and the damage caused through animal-vehicle collisions is a worthwhile goal. But this animal crossing money pit is yet another high-profile symbol of California’s disdain for the taxpayer.