Legislature
Senate Bill Doles out Goodies to Legislative Districts
07/06/12 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
The strategy to pass
HSR funding was to dole out goodies: Senate President
pro Tem Steinberg handed out this summary to Senators. This was apparently
his primary tool to gather support for the $8
billion HSR funding bill known as S.B.
1029. Read
More...
CA Legislature: Know-Nothings Approve HSR Funding
07/06/12 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
Friday's no-margin
majority vote in the CA Senate to fund the $6 billion
130-mile HSR project in the Central Valley was marked
by a stunning disconnect between the majority that
passed the budget measure and the members most
informed about the project. The majority plugged
their ears to the detailed explanations of the
measure's flaws given by three courageous Democratic
Senators and the Republicans. Facts didn't matter.
Senator Simitian of Palo Alto gave the speech of his life.
Although a long-time supporter of the concept of High-Speed Rail for California, Simitian’s conclusion was: "This is the wrong plan, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time." He was also concerned that voters would react to this vote by turning down the Governor's tax extension measures in November, with devastating consequences to education and social service programs.
Senators DeSaulnier and Lowenthal, Chair and former Chair of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, who have held countless hearings on High-Speed Rail, spoke out strongly against the measure. These three and Senator Pavley were the only Democrats voting against the funding measure.
According to press reports, a 2010 promise by the President to secure the vote of Representative Jim Costa on health care reform resulted in the federal insistence that its HSR funding go entirely to Costa's Central Valley district.
The three Senators were convinced that spending $6 billion in that area would put the State at great risk of being left with a very expensive piece of useless track.
They produced an alternative plan that would have spent most of the money on immediately useful track improvements in Los Angeles and San Francisco, including a $2 billion extension of Caltrain to the Transbay Transit Center. Read More...
Senator Simitian of Palo Alto gave the speech of his life.
Although a long-time supporter of the concept of High-Speed Rail for California, Simitian’s conclusion was: "This is the wrong plan, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time." He was also concerned that voters would react to this vote by turning down the Governor's tax extension measures in November, with devastating consequences to education and social service programs.
Senators DeSaulnier and Lowenthal, Chair and former Chair of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, who have held countless hearings on High-Speed Rail, spoke out strongly against the measure. These three and Senator Pavley were the only Democrats voting against the funding measure.
According to press reports, a 2010 promise by the President to secure the vote of Representative Jim Costa on health care reform resulted in the federal insistence that its HSR funding go entirely to Costa's Central Valley district.
The three Senators were convinced that spending $6 billion in that area would put the State at great risk of being left with a very expensive piece of useless track.
They produced an alternative plan that would have spent most of the money on immediately useful track improvements in Los Angeles and San Francisco, including a $2 billion extension of Caltrain to the Transbay Transit Center. Read More...
Senate Holds Fiery HSR Hearing
04/18/12 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
On April 18, Budget
Subcommittee #3 conducted a hearing on High-Speed
Rail. Chairman Joe Simitian asked many pointed
questions as to the viability of the proposed 130
mile Central Valley project. Compelling testimony
from the Legislative Analysts’ Office cast strong
doubts on assertions in the HSRA Business Plan that
the Authority would be able to access cap and trade
revenues as a backstop for 20+ billion in missing
funding for its Initial Operating Section (IOS).
Without a fully-funded IOS, opponents of the Central
Valley project assert that the Authority cannot
legally access Proposition 1A Bond funds. TRANSDEF
provided the following testimony: Read
More...
TRANSDEF's Testimony at Senate HSR Hearing
03/13/12 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
I’m David Schonbrunn of
TRANSDEF. We’re transit advocates that have been
litigating HSR EIRs for the past 5 years, and have
been highly critical of the Authority’s route
decisions, their engineering and their ridership
modeling. We see the Authority slowly changing
direction and heading in a more viable direction. We
give great credit to the Peer Review Group for their
courageous comments, which were instrumental in
bringing that about. But we are more outspoken: we
vigorously oppose the Central Valley project and urge
you to not fund it. Many environmental groups, under
the aegis of the Planning and Conservation League,
sent the Governor a letter opposing the project, for
the reasons identified by the Peer Review Group and
Legislative Analyst. That creates credibility
problems for the Governor, who is touting this
project for environmental reasons.
Read
More...