- Home
- Solano News
- US / World
- Opinion
- Living
- Entertainment
- Sports
- Business
- Obituaries
- Comics
- Gallery
- Classifieds
- Advertisers
- Coupons
- Contact Us
2,090
1,919
Board seeks $8.6B in Calif. high-speed rail bonds
SACRAMENTO — The California High-Speed Rail Authority voted Monday to issue nearly $8.6 billion in taxpayer-approved bonds to build the nation’s first bullet train.
Officials say they will try to sell $2.6 billion of the bonds as the state rushes to begin construction in July.
“It’s another step towards the process of breaking ground on the nation’s first high speed rail system in California this summer,” authority Chairman Dan Richard said after the vote.
The six-member board approved the step on a 5-0 vote, without debate and with one member absent. It previously sold $400 million worth of bonds.
It’s the authority’s last such authorization needed before groundbreaking, but the project still must withstand lawsuits that have court hearings in coming months. They include a hearing April 19 over the project’s environmental impacts, while a May 31 hearing will consider whether the funds meet the requirements set by voters when they approved the high speed rail program in 2008.
Adverse rulings in those lawsuits could stall the bond money, though Richard said groundbreaking can proceed using $3.3 billion in federal matching funds.
The first full segment of the $68 billion rail line will run from Madera to Bakersfield. The project eventually is supposed to link Northern and Southern California with trains traveling up to 220 mph.
Contractors have submitted bids to design and build the first $1.8 billion, 30-mile stretch of track.
Lawmakers appropriated the initial $2.6 billion last year along with another $1.1 billion in non-high speed rail bonds. They would have to act again to appropriate the remainder of the $8.6 billion, Richard said.
Interest payments on the entire amount would cost the state an estimated $700 million a year for 35 years, but the debt payments of about $175 million a year on the initial $2.6 billion would come from fees paid by commercial truckers, not from the state’s general fund, Richard said. He said it is not clear if the overweight fees on truckers would cover the entire amount.
Discussion | 12 comments
The Daily Republic does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy
Rich GiddensMarch 18, 2013 - 3:24 pm
The people of California don't want this. Instead they want their share of California's not discussed bonanza--500 billion barrels of Monterey Shale oil worth trillions that lie beneath their feet. You people should be calling your slug rat party legislators and demand they allow further drilling and exploration of the state's valuable resources.
Reply |PatriotMarch 19, 2013 - 5:35 am
Jerry thinks this will be something to be proud of in his legacy..It will become a laughing point and at the end of most jokes..California you are first again. Congrats and look forward to watching this project suck more money out of the coffers..Tax increase coming soon to all of you.
Reply |rlw895March 19, 2013 - 10:42 am
I've had second thoughts about high speed rail. I had opposed it as a costly boondoggle. But I now see it in the context of a future in which people are more serious about dealing with climate change in their daily lives, and that means substituting electric rail travel for any form of fossil fuel travel. Electricity can be--and will be more so in the future--generated without burning fossil fuels. Add in national security issues having to do with dependency on foreign oil, and the rail project is even more compelling; the sooner the better.
Reply |Rich GiddensMarch 19, 2013 - 3:20 pm
New technologies like horizontal drilling and fracking are rendering old assumptions and anti-fossil fuel arguments moot and obsolete. Again, most Californians are totally unaware of the facts and if they only knew they would be ANGRY.
Reply |rlw895March 20, 2013 - 12:08 am
Glad to hear it. But it's still fossil fuel.
Reply |Recently breaking news Choo Choo TrainMarch 19, 2013 - 6:36 pm
Google...Train agency 'raids' CalPERS for exec talent: Oy vey! | CalWatchDog........and also this........High-Speed Rail Authority Hires Chief Financial Officer.................March 4, 2013 -- Quote...SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) has filled all of its senior management positions with the announcement today of Russell Fong as its Chief Financial Officer.... “Russell Fong brings a wealth of public and private sector financial management experience to the California High-Speed Rail Authority,” said Jeff Morales, Authority CEO. “In putting together an experienced management team we are continuing to move this project forward and start construction this summer.”........ Fong comes to the Authority from CalPERS, where he served as the Acting CFO and Acting Deputy Executive Officer of Operations. He previously served as a Division Chief for CalPERS’ Fiscal Services Division and was the Deputy Director of the Administrative Services Branch at the California Department of Technology Services................. Dennis Trujillo Chief Deputy Director of the Authority, previously served as Deputy Treasurer to California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, has been Acting CFO..........So the Chief Financial Officer for the Bullet Train was a Division Chief for CalPERS’ Fiscal Services Division. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....To quote the Associated Press "Officials say they will try to sell $2.6 billion of the bonds as the state rushes to begin construction in July.".....Does this mean that CalPERS will be buying a lot of the Bonds? What about Service Employees International Union will they be buying the bonds?
Reply |One way ticket (to the blues) - 1959 .March 19, 2013 - 6:46 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGGU-15Tt6M
Reply |From Wikipedia California High-Speed RailMarch 19, 2013 - 7:00 pm
On November 4, 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A, a measure to construct the initial segment of the network. The measure provides $9 billion for the construction of the core segment between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim, and an additional $950 million for improvements on local railroad systems, which will serve as feeder systems to the planned high-speed rail system. Financing plans to complete the initial segment require as-yet-unsecured support from federal and local governments, as well as significant investment from the private sector. In a plan developed by the CHSRA in conjunction with Goldman Sachs, the federal commitment was expected to be $12 to $16 billion, while private investors would invest up to $7.5 billion, leaving an additional $10 billion to come from local governments.[37] Construction costs are projected to be approximately $98.5 billion (year of expenditure). The CHSRA projects the initial operating segment to produce a budget surplus which will be used to finance extensions to Sacramento and San Diego. On October 2, 2009, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled California's official application for ARRA high-speed rail stimulus funding. The total amount of the application was $4.7 billion, representing more than half of the $8 billion set aside for high-speed rail............AND IT IS NOT JUST JERRY, IT IS ARNOLD ALSO......AND NOT JUST CA, THE FEDERAL GOV ALSO.....And you must remember this a kiss is just a kiss....I mean you must remember this...THE BOND DEBT IS THE END GAME.....NOTICE THE INVOLVEMENT OF....wait for it..........GOLDMAN SACHS us. Remember Arnold was chosen to be Gov by Jacob Rothschild and Warren Buffett who are heavily involved in Goldman Sachs us. I thought Gov Brown was doing OK till this, but I guess in many ways he is an Illuminati puppet also.
Reply |Posted this before but will post againMarch 19, 2013 - 7:42 pm
Google this....Could California's valleys be transformed into THIS? Environmental fears as 15.4bn barrels of shale oil are found beneath fertile farmland...dailymail dot co dot uk...By Lydia Warren...21 February 2013....See the map of possilbe oil locations....Now as far as the Madera to Bakersfield proposed routes it has been commented that the local routes there seem to zig zag through as many large Dairy Farms as possilbe? Is this being done to condemn the land for public domain so that it sells cheaply and then can be bought up be the priviledged few, for oil leases. In other words does the train and the land acquisition have something to do with the Shale oil deposits at some locations...Another opportunity for investigative reporting...Does this correlate...see the public would be installing a supposedly High speed passenger line that might be planned to fail so that the oil transport rail links would be in place and the land already condemned by eminent domaine and bought cheaply by people in the know. Public financing to benefit private investors? Don't know just asking, it has been done before.
Reply |DittoMarch 19, 2013 - 7:53 pm
Something I'd really like to see anaylsis of California Bond Debt starting with the Arnold Administration till the current time, including the Bullet train bond debt already issued to the proposed Bonds that are to be issued to fund it. Please somebody tell us in depth how this process works...What state agency does the paper work, what banks or financial institutions issue the bonds...who are the bonds sold to...what is the interest rate on the bonds...Keep in mind that taxpayers repay the bonds over time, we pay....how are the bonds rated by raing agencies...how does it work when someone trades or cashes in a bond....who reinsures the bonds....which pension plans buy the bonds, for example will CalPERS be buying them...what happens if California defaults on a bond....Yes Yes Yes someone please explain in detail how this bond stuff really works...Please....Name names ID the Players and Companies involved in all this......Really people they are just milking us before the crash, also doing the derivatives shuffle and the short sale, put calls stuff, it is all rigged in the International Bankers' favor. And remember when they....Goldman Sachs "underwrites" the Bonds they create this money out of thin air, these digital blips did not exsist before, they are just punched up in a banks computer, BUT we the citizens have to repay it with our "computer blip credits" that you have to work to earn, or have an actual tanglible, physical asset to sell like a house or land. So the people at the top make large salaries, the people sanctioned by the noblese, who make money just trading the paper assets, the hedge fund manages ect...get very rich, while purposely tanking the economy to put us into the New World Order.
Reply |PatriotMarch 20, 2013 - 5:07 am
All politicians are puppets of the banks..The banks control everything so if you want to gain their support you must support them..
Reply |Elvis Presley-Mystery Train/lyrics .March 19, 2013 - 8:00 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZEmwAdXzs
Reply |