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Worried they would lack big-name candidates at the top of the ticket this November, California Republicans turned to a ballot measure that would eliminate a recent gas tax increase in hopes of exciting conservatives and ensuring they show up to support lower-profile legislative and congressional candidates. A potential similar strategy for 2020 emerged Tuesday, when a conservative radio host who is the public face behind this year's gas tax initiative announced he will pursue another measure - this one eliminating the state's beleaguered high-speed rail project.
Gov. Rick Scott , who rejected $2.4 billion in federal funding for a high-speed train from Orlando to Tampa as one of his first acts in office, revealed Friday that a similar but privately funded project is on the table. The Florida Department of Transportation received an unsolicited proposal in March from Brightline to lease right of way and build a high-speed rail line connecting Orlando and Tampa along Interstate 4. Brightline already is building a rail line from Miami to Orlando, with a terminus at Orlando International Airport.
In this Feb. 26, 2016, file photo, the supports for a 1,600-foot-viaduct to carry high-speed rail trains across the Fresno River stand under construction near Madera, Calif. It can't be good news for high-speed rail in California that the U.S. government has initiated an audit of the state's over-budget, behind-schedule bullet train project.
I am proud to pen this commentary from my new office space, referred to around the state Capitol as "the Dog House." The Dog House is where you get sent as punishment when you draw the ire of the leaders for standing up to them on principle.
" After years of prep work, Gov. Jerry Brown's finance department decided Friday that California's $64 billion high-speed rail project is ready to lay some track. The administration approved the rail authority's request to spend $2.6 billion on work in the Central Valley.
In this July 1, 2013, file photo, commuters board a Caltrain train at the Caltrain and BART station in Millbrae. The Federal Transit Administration is delaying a decision on whether to approve a $647 million federal grant for electrification of Caltrain, which would also help California's high-speed rail project.
The Obama administration spent nearly $10 billion to improve passenger rail service across the country. While it accomplished that goal to some degree, it did not build the faster trains passengers can ride in Europe, Japan and China.
California's $64 billion high-speed rail plan lacks reliable funding sources and is in danger of ending up with only one line that doesn't connect to San Francisco or Los Angeles, members of a Congressional panel said Monday during a hearing. Proceeds from a state environment program that is supposed to help fund the project were far below expectations and private funding for the train has yet to materialize, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican, said.
The criticism at the Democratic National Convention last week directed toward Donald Trump had at least one significant flaw: They acted as though he had no policy plans at all, though in reality several of his economic proposals mimic what we hear from Democrats themselves . His anti-trade positions, his desire to punish companies that leave the United States, and his desire to use federal infrastructure spending as a jobs program all mimic things said by Democrats and even Hillary Clinton herself.
President Donald Trump's campaign promise for a $1 trillion infrastructure program will be in focus when U.S. governors gather on Friday in Washington, D.C., with some states making wish lists of projects ranging from a bullet train to statewide broadband internet service. The winter meeting of the National Governors Association running through Monday is expected to showcase rare bipartisan agreement on the need for more federal help in upgrading roads, bridges and airports, said Scott Pattison, the group's executive director.