| Good news, bad news here: The Governor has backed down from his demand that the legislature remove the high-speed rail bonds be removed from the November ballot. The bad news: he's trying to put a sort of poison pill in the language of the ballot measure that requires funding commitments from the feds and private investors.
Of course, the problem then gets down to a chicken and the egg sort of a problem.
"I have been talking to a lot of high-speed rail folks and, yes, they would love to invest in the project or be a partner with the state," said Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat who is a leading supporter of the project.
"But they need to know the state is committed to this project and we have done certain things to minimize the risk by, for example, doing engineering studies, environmental studies and buying right of way." (AP 1/17/08)
Without a serious commitment from the state, will private investors want to invest? And will the feds put in billions for what might be a pie in the sky. Sure, it helps to have the Speaker be SF's representative, but that alone will not be enough to guarantee successful federal funding. So, Arnold gets what he really wants, except only better. He gets rid of the HSR issue, but it doesn't actually move forward b/c neither side is willing to make a commitment without the other side similarly committing. Well, played, Arnold.
Except one problem, strong HSR advocates like Assembly member Fiona Ma and Senator Dean Florez are no dummies. See, in order for the language to be changed in the ballot measure, Arnold needs new legislation passed.
"The governor recognizes that he doesn't have the two-thirds vote necessary to pull it off the November ballot, so he's attempting to put a poison pill in this to say, in essence, if you don't have the federal or private funding for this, it's null and void...," Florez said. "Those kinds of modifications won't fly past the Legislature."
Looks like we might be setting up for a little tiff between HSR advocates and the governor here. What we need, for a change, is inaction. No legislation should be passed on this. No modifications are necessary. We just need the legislature to do nothing and resist pressure from the Governor.
Just Don't Do it. |
