Proposition 1A: High-speed rail
What it would do: Authorize the state to sell $9.95 billion in bonds to help fund a $45-billion bullet train between Orange County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Repayment would cost the state $647 million annually for 30 years.
Chief proponents: California High-Speed Rail Authority; chambers of commerce in Los Angeles, San Francisco and more than a dozen other cities; Consumer Federation of California; Sierra Club California; American Lung Assn.; California Democratic Party
Major donors to "Yes" side: California Alliance for Jobs; State Building & Construction Trades Council of California political fund; engineering firms HNTB Corp., Parsons Brinkerhoff and STV; California American Council of Engineering Companies Issues Fund
Chief opponents: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., California Rail Foundation, California Chamber of Commerce, Reason Foundation, state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine)
Major donors to "No" side: No contributions reported to the California secretary of state's office.
Recomendación del periódico:
Yes on California bonds
Bullet trains, children's healthcare and veterans' housing all deserve support.
Prop. 1a: High-speed rail line
There's something undeniably alluring about a bullet train -- the technology is so powerful, the speed so breathtaking, it makes quotidian trips seem exotic. Perhaps that's why proponents of Proposition 1a, which would authorize $9.95 billion in bonds for a high-speed rail line connecting Northern and Southern California, think it would be wildly successful. They predict the line could draw 117 million riders a year by 2030, compared with 3 million now taking the high-speed Amtrak train in the densely populated Boston-Washington corridor. And they say it will turn a billion-dollar profit by then even as it keeps ticket prices remarkably low.
The projections by the measure's opponents, led by the libertarian Reason Foundation in Los Angeles, are much less sanguine and more persuasive. If voters approve Proposition 1a, it seems close to a lead-pipe cinch that the California High-Speed Rail Authority will ask for many billions more in the coming decades, and the Legislature will have to scrape up many millions of dollars in operating subsidies.
And yet, we still think voters should give in to the measure's gleaming promise, because it's in their long-term interest. Weaning travelers from gas-powered, road-choking cars is critical to the state's health and competitiveness. A high-speed rail line would not only provide a cleaner and faster alternative to automobiles, it would encourage transit-friendly development.
The measure isn't as big a risk as it would be if the state were footing the entire bill. The "backbone" segment from Los Angeles to San Francisco is projected to cost $33 billion, with about 75% from federal and private sources. Until those funds are secured, the state won't issue most of its bonds. If the line never gets built, the state's losses will be well under $2 billion. That's not too much to wager on a visionary leap that would cement California's place as the nation's most forward-thinking state.