REGION: High-speed rail bill still alive
Ballot measure and voter pamphlet may not add up
By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | ∞
Despite missing a deadline Monday, a bill that would open a way for San Diego and Riverside counties to get a cut of $9 billion in a November bond measure for local portions of the statewide high-speed rail system remains alive, state officials said.
Reichel Everhart, spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, the bill's sponsor, said Galgiani plans to bring the legislation up for a final vote Tuesday on the Assembly floor.
Even so, the bill still faces an uncertain future.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to block all bills from becoming law until the Legislature sends him a budget, and there is no sign Democratic and Republican lawmakers are close to a compromise on a spending plan.
The two sides are deadlocked over how to plug a $15 billion gap ---- Democrats want to raise taxes and Republicans want to cut expenses ---- as California moves into the sixth week of a new fiscal year.
"He's not signing anything until we have a budget, period," said Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary.
Galgiani's bill ---- Assembly Bill 3034 ---- aimed to rewrite the bond, Proposition 1. The $9.95 billion measure would set aside $9 billion for high-speed rail and $950 million for improvements to existing train lines.
However, Proposition 1 would earmark all of the $9 billion for the portion of the $45 billion, 800-mile statewide network that lies between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Local officials had been lobbying to remove the restriction and allow funds to be spent on tracks anywhere in the state.
Now, Galgiani will have to take a different tack.
"(Monday) was the deadline to remove Prop. 1, the existing high-speed rail measure, and that deadline was missed," said Kate Folmar, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State.
So Proposition 1 will appear in the ballot pamphlet that is mailed to voters, Folmar said.
And in order for all areas of the state to get a crack at the money, there will have to be a second, different ballot measure. Instead of replacing Proposition 1, Galgiani is proposing to create Proposition 1A.
The details about Proposition 1A would be sent to voters in a follow-up supplemental pamphlet, Folmar said.
And Proposition 1 would be pulled from the ballot ---- even though it is mentioned in the first pamphlet ---- because the legislation would rescind it, she said.
That could be a first.
"We're not aware of something being in a ballot pamphlet but not on a ballot before. ... Certainly not in recent history," Folmar said.
Pamphlets will be mailed to 16 million registered voters in 13 million households across the state in about 40 days, she said.
Monday's deadline was missed because an Assembly floor session was canceled.
Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said it was canceled because Democratic legislative leaders spent the afternoon discussing the budget with the governor.
Maviglio suggested Saturday is not a drop-dead deadline.
"I don't think anything's ever set in stone," he said.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
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Inland wrote on Aug 11, 2008 8:44 PM:If we don't approve a high rail or Bullet Train in our near future...get ready to arise 4 hours earlier into your twilight (sleep) time to arrive on the job without being tardy.
Spiff wrote on Aug 11, 2008 10:46 PM:If we vote "no" on California High Speed Rail, there will still be the California-Nevada Super Speed Train stretching from Anaheim to Las Vegas. It will be a 300-mph maglev line instead of a 200-mph steel wheel train. Since the big casinos are backing the California-Nevada project, it will be much less expensive to us to develop that one only. To get service to San Diego, we'd only need a spur from Ontario through Temecula & Escondido to the Santa Fe Depot, and we might get our local casinos to kick in for that.
Local wrote on Aug 12, 2008 3:44 AM:How long can we continue to ignore the realities of the 21st century?. I love nostalgia but we need to plan beyond getting our kicks on route 66.
Please wrote on Aug 12, 2008 8:31 AM:Please ensure this bill goes forward. Tell Arnold we must plan for the future and approve this bond measure on the ballot.
Another experiment wrote on Aug 12, 2008 9:42 AM:in mass transportaion! Say how is the sprinter doing now? Give it one month and then check with the students back in school, I believe we are headed for a decline in ridership. Cars are still peoples choice for commuting.
Experiment wrote on Aug 12, 2008 1:32 PM:High speed rail is a proven technology. Japan has had it since the sixties. Every high speed rail line around the world starts making a profit within a few years. You could even include in that the not-quite-high-speed rail line in the northeast, the Acela Express, which has taken a good portion of market share from the airlines.
Next year gas will hit $5 a gallon. Airfares will increase and routes will be cut. We're going to wish this thing had already been built.
John E wrote on Aug 12, 2008 6:24 PM:A little history lesson might be in order.
In 1984, a group proposed a high-speed bullet train, using the existing coastal right-of-way through San Diego County. Many of the members of the United Citizens' Coastal Protection League actually were fans of rail travel, but with a vision for a true commuter system which could give us a decent alternative to slogging along on I-5 every day during "rush" (love that term) hour. The most visible byproducts of their efforts were the demise of the bullet train project and the establishment of NCTD's San Diego Northern Railroad and subsequent construction of its popular Coast Express Rail (Coaster) line.
The I-15 corridor urgently needs a Coaster-style commuter rail line, not a bullet train which would stop only in Escondido and downtown San Diego. The coastal route is too valuable as a freight and commuter system to be converted to dedicated bullet train use, and parts of the right-of-way are too narrow to accommodate three to four tracks.
please wrote on Aug 12, 2008 6:26 PM:give it up
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