Another Funding Twist for the CA Bullet Train

LETS JUST DUMP MONEY INTO A WHOLE!!!

There’s been another funding twist for the California bullet-train project. The Federal Railroad Administration has agreed to delay the due date for $180 million in state matching funds for the project from April 1 to July 1,  according to a press release from Rep. Jeff Denham’s office.

This gives Gov. Jerry Brown and the California High-Speed Rail Authority breathing room to work with the Legislature and try to convince lawmakers to allocate $250 million in state cap-and-trade auction revenues for the rail project.

Denham, a Turlock Republican, considers the move risky.  This is from his Feb. 21 press release:

“The Federal Railroad Administration [FRA] is protecting the Authority yet again and putting California taxpayers at greater risk. It has long been clear that the Authority would be unable to provide the funds required in their grant agreement. In December 2012, the FRA changed their agreement to allow for a tapered match rather than the standard concurrent match. Now they’ve changed the agreement again. With billions in federal taxpayer dollars on the line, what changes are next from the FRA? The American people – and Californian taxpayers – deserve to see their money used responsibly.”

But there are also additional important changes in the federal funding agreement outlined in the letter that rail authority CEO Jeff Morales released Feb. 20. The new funding contribution plan shifts a large amount of funding responsibility in coming years to the federal government, with a significant decrease in California’s contribution compared with the original plan, according to bullet-train financial expert William Warren. (Along with William Grindley, Warren has co-authored numerous briefing papers regarding rail-authority data.)

U.S. taxpayers at risk for single-state project

These changes leave the U.S. taxpayers in all 50 states with more exposure while pushing a troubled, legally questionable California state project forward.

Via: California Political Review

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