Slow speed for high-speed rail

The governor's new budget doesn't offer the financial good news backers of the bullet train proposal were hoping for:

Despite a recent statement of support, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger included little additional money for California’s high-speed rail project in his revised state budget proposal - and most of the new funding has a string attached. The Republican governor on Monday proposed a $5.2 million 2007-08 budget for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, up from about $1.2 million he offered in January. Most of that additional money - $3.5 million - would come from the Orange County Transportation Authority, not the state treasury. (AP)

The authority is overseeing planning for a 700-mile rail system that would carry passengers between California’s largest cities at top speeds of more than 200 mph. It’s requested a 2007-08 budget of $103 million, including $60 million for engineering and environmental work and roughly $40 million to begin buying rail rights-of-way.

Schwarzenegger has been cool toward the project since he took office in 2003, but in a recent op-ed column he said high-speed rail would be a "tremendous benefit" that would help relieve freeway congestion, improve air quality and create greater mobility.

A spokesman for the governor, H.D. Palmer, said Schwarzenegger wanted to see a financing plan from the authority spelling out how it expects to pay for the entire $40 billion project before considering significant additional funding.

"You shouldn’t spend that kind of money without having a financial plan to finish the project," Palmer said, referring to the authority’s request for $103 million. "No such plan exists."

Morshed said the authority is working on the plan and expects to have it finished in a couple of months, but probably not before lawmakers and Schwarzenegger wrap up their budget negotiations this summer.

A leading legislative supporter of high-speed rail, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said Schwarzenegger’s lack of support for the project in his revised budget proposal was disappointing.

"It looks like the governor’s budget folks don’t read his op-eds," Florez said. "His comments in the paper were so positive, so it’s hard to give a reason for the disconnection between his words and the lack of support through the proposed budget action."

He said it would be up to the Legislature to "do some of the heavy lifting of trying to get adequate funding into the budget for high-speed rail."

Morshed said he did not expect Schwarzenegger to offer a lot more money for the authority in his budget proposal. Governors usually don’t make policy shifts in their May budget revisions, but rather adjust funding based on new revenue projections, he said.

"Since January, our hope and expectation has been that the Legislature would provide us the money," he said. "And if they don’t, we’re basically closing up shop and saying, ’OK, this is nice work, but it’s not going anywhere."’

The governor’s proposals would keep the authority’s small staff in place but leave it with no money to contract for engineering and environmental work and rights-of-way, he said.

Schwarzenegger also drew criticism Monday for proposing to divert more than $1.3 billion in public transit funding to other programs.

"You can’t pose for the cover of Newsweek as the savior of global warming one day and then turn around and slash funding for public transit the next," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.

Comments

[gregory kay]

Yes, if we were as civilized as Japan, there would be a bullet train linking the three major population nodes of California. But just how linked to San Francisco does L.A. want to be, anyways? If this is money that could instead be spent on mass transit for both metropolitan areas, I'd say that humane, environmental and economic priorities tilt towards the local: subways and light rail.