Assemblyman Tangipa’s Bill Pushes For High Speed Rail Financial Plan
Sacramento, CA — Mother Lode Republican Assemblyman David Tangipa is authoring a bill that would require the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority to improve its financial strategy.
Tangipa says a newly released report from the California High-Speed Rail Inspector General details ongoing failures in meeting key deadlines, casting doubts on its ability to deliver on a business plan developed last year. He says the report warns that even a week’s delay could push the project’s status to critical, further threatening its viability and increasing the risk of federal grant clawbacks.
Tangipa states, “The Inspector General’s report confirms what many of us have feared: even the High-Speed Rail Authority has lost hope in securing federal funding for the Merced-to-Bakersfield portion due to its ever-growing funding gap. We cannot continue to spend billions of dollars without a financial plan that ensures Fresno and the Central Valley won’t be left with a modern-day Stonehenge – an unfinished monument to government mismanagement. That is why I have introduced AB 377, which will require the High-Speed Rail Authority to create a business plan that includes a clear financial strategy and ensures that Californians are not left footing the bill for a failed project.”
Tangipa’s District 8 covers portions of Tuolumne, Calaveras, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Inyo and Mono counties.
