From boondoggle to significant?  
The man who many believe will be the next Republican leader in the state Senate has a completely different viewpoint on the state's proposed high-speed rail plan than the current holder of that position.
 
Sen. Bob Huff, R-Walnut, sees the plan as critical to improving the California economy. The man he may replace as GOP leader, Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, sees the San Francisco-to-Anaheim line as simply a waste of money.
 
Dutton's opposition didn't change this week following the release of a business plan that gave a detailed look at the project and pegged its cost at nearly $100 billion over 20 years.
 
"Even before the first shovel of dirt has turned, the cost estimates have nearly tripled," Dutton said.
"The high-speed rail is a boondoggle that needs to be derailed."
 
Huff called the draft business plan released Tuesday a positive step in framing a larger discussion about the viability of high-speed rail.
 
"Every demographic model shows the state's population continuing to grow, with no parallel investment to accommodate that growth in our transportation systems," he said.
 
Huff added that improving transportation infrastructure is critical to the Golden State's future.
 
"High-speed rail is poised to fill a significant part of this need, but we must proceed with a good business plan built of accurate data and assumptions," he said.

A recent preliminary caucus vote indicated Huff has the necessary votes to take over as leader of the 15 state Senate Republicans. Huff is currently chairman of the caucus, or second in command to Dutton.
 
Jack Pitney, political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said the differing opinions of Dutton and Huff is a case in which legislators have to balance local interests and state interests.
 
"Bob Huff is serving the interests of his constituents who could benefit from the high-speed rail line," Pitney said. "On the other hand, a lot of Republicans see this as a huge burden on the state. So again, every member has to balance local interests and state interests."
 
The initial estimate to build the rail system when voters approved bond funding for it in 2008 was $43 billion.
The plan released Tuesday says the system would be profitable even at the lowest ridership estimates and would not require public operating subsidies.
 
But the overall cost to get the project going didn't quell the concerns of several GOP lawmakers, even though they may like the idea.
 
"I've been against the project from the very beginning. It's a great concept, but we don't have the centers of population like other countries do to justify users on a regular basis," said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills.
 
"The cost is crazy. The only way this project would work is if a private entity takes it on because it would mean a third to half the cost of operating and building."
 
Under the revised business plan, initial construction would start with a $5.2 billion "spine" from Fresno to Bakersfield to be completed in 2017. The line would then be extended farther north or south - from Merced to Palmdale, in the Los Angeles basin, or from Bakersfield to San Jose.
 
The first 130-mile segment would create about 100,000 jobs in the hard-hit Central Valley, according to the report. Building the entire system would generate about 1 million jobs.
 
The report notes that while the $98.5 billion tab seems high, California's growing population would otherwise require about $170 billion in new infrastructure, such as freeways and airport runways.
Pomona is in the running to be one of the 13 stops on the bullet train route.