Those of us who think that the California high speed train is a stupid
idea, (How does $100 Billion capital development costs sound to you?)
should be elated at our Governator's proposed bond issue agenda.
However, those of us who are also skeptical government-watchers are
inclined to wait and see what actually happens to the high speed train
ballot initiative in '08. More about all this in a future email.

Martin
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> Published Tuesday, January 9, 2007, by KQED.org
>
> State... of the State of the State
>
> By John Myers
>
> * On Those Bonds: The governor is calling for an additional
> $43.3 billion in bond offerings to finance his new infrastructure
> proposals, what his administration is calling part two of 2006's
> Strategic Growth Plan. $29.4 billion of that would have to be
> approved by voters over the course of two elections, in 2008 and
> 2010. Most of that money would be for education needs. But as the
> focus groups conducted for this past fall's Proposition 1D revealed,
> the voters are getting grumpy about constantly being asked for more
> money for schools.
>
> * Sayonara High Speed Rail? In a pre-speech briefing with reporters,
> the Schwarzenegger administration said that Schwarzenegger's bond
> proposal would essentially max out the state's borrowing capacity for
> the next decade. So what about the idea of a ballot measure asking
> voters to approve bonds to build a high speed rail system through the
> Central Valley? After all, it was supposed to have been on the ballot
> already, but kept getting postponed. Administration officials said
> today that the high-speed rail project should be derailed... again,
> and perhaps indefinitely.
>
>
> John Myers <JMyers@...> is Sacramento Bureau Chief for
> KQED's "The California Report," heard on 24 public radio stations
> including 88.5 FM in San Francisco and 89.3 FM in Sacramento,
> weekdays at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.
>

-- 
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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net
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