business, and potentially bringing in more revenue”) as well as an unspecified “reinvestment” in higher education, K-12 education, and human services.13 And Pérez told the press “The governor’s been very clear that the only way to do taxes as long as he’s governor is through a direct vote of the people. We’re not looking to figure out new ways to do things that we’ve said we’re not going to do.” Pérez did, however, pledge to revive his proposal to create new university scholarships for middle-class Californians.14 In other words, the governor, the senate president, and the speaker of the assembly, all newly confident of their power to move legislation and seriously committed to prove fiscal responsibility, have wish lists. Their goals are both expensive and fraught with potential difficulty, even within the Democrats’ new supermajority. Let’s look at the two major issues on the Governor’s agenda, high speed rail and the delta water project.
California’s High-Speed Rail Project In recent decades, many U.S. visitors to China, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain have returned enamored with the idea of high-speed rail. Both Governor Brown and President Obama are proponents on the grounds that high-speed rail construction will stimulate state and local economies, as well as provide a cleaner, more efficient alternative to car and jet travel. The plan backed by Brown in California called for a $46 billion project, the California “Bullet Train,” which would run from San Diego to San Francisco and Sacramento. When completed in 2028, estimated train time from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be two hours and 30 minutes. In 2008, on the same day Obama was elected, California voters approved a $9.5 billion bond measure to begin construction on a high speed rail project. And since then, the Obama administration has allotted over $3 billion to California for the project (including $2 billion from the federal stimulus turned down by Florida for a proposed high speed rail project there). After the initial enthusiasm, however, the Bullet Train has lost support. The cost of the train is now estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $65 billion.15 During the Proposition 30 debate, the Bullet Train was held up as an example of an unnecessary, wasteful expenditure by opponents of the measure. Some Proposition 30 supporters, in fact, advocated that Brown drop support for the Bullet Train as an assurance that state government was serious about budget 8 212