AB 3034 Passes Senate Transportation and Housing Committee

AB 3034 passes Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. Erik Nelson from the Oakland Tribune reported that the Cathleen Galgiani’s high speed rail bill AB 3034 was approved 8-4 in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee; meanwhile, a few days ago, Debra Bowen assigned the prime-time position of Proposition 1 to the $9.95 billion HSR bond measure for this November’s ballot. The latest version from Senate committee includes caps on allocating the bond proceeds; it also includes Senator Leland Yee’s reaffirmation of the requirement that proceeds be applied to constructing the core San Francisco-Los Angeles spine of the system, thus changing the Assembly’s language that opened up the possibility of fast-forwarding metropolitan sections of the route ahead of the North-South statewide link through the Central Valley. The next steps will be to get the bill passed in the full Senate and reconciled with the Assembly.
[Oakland Tribune]