The state of California, already $28 billion in debt, is supposed to begin construction of a $68 billion high-speed rail project in July. The state’s High-Speed Rail Authority voted last week to issue $8.6 billion in taxpayer-approved bonds to build the first 130 miles of track between Fresno and Bakersfield.

But a slew of lawsuits threatens to delay the project, and state authorities still have not purchased a single acre of land on which to build the rail line. Now one of the project’s original supporters, the co-author of the ballot initiative that launched it, has joined an effort by Central Valley farmers to stop the train dead in its tracks.