California High Speed Rail Authority Forfeits Cap and Trade Money Assemblyman Hadley bill redirects funds to local transit

Obama lies.  Hillary lies.  Brown has been caught lying.  CalPERS has been lying for years about its return on investment.  The Attorney General Harris has been lying by not speaking out about the crime wave in California caused by government policies of putting criminals on the streets and making it harder for honest citizens to protect themselves by using their Second Amendment rights.

The High Speed Rail was born on the basis of lies—the actual cost, the route, the environmental dangers, the ridership and more.  This is an agency that lies built.  In 2014 the Guv, through the budget starting giving hundreds of millions a year to the choo choo train to nowhere through the cap and trade fund—a phony effort to tax business out of the State and raise the price of goods, while killing jobs—the trifecta of losers.  The money is being given on the basis of helping the air quality of the Los Angeles basin.  Now we know the closest this fraud is coming to Los Angeles is Shafter, in Kern County, about 120 miles from Los Angeles.  Finally a GOP Assemblyman is noting the fraud of the cap and trade money versus the route and has a bill to end this open corruption.

““The High Speed Rail Authority’s decision to build the northern California route breaks the promise made to Southern California taxpayers. My legislation will ensure that cap and trade dollars go to the disadvantaged communities they are meant to help,” said Assemblyman Hadley.

In 2014, the legislature passed Senate Bill 862, which provided that 25 percent of all cap and trade dollars must go toward benefiting low income Californians. With 60 percent of the state’s disadvantaged communities in Southern California, the change in route for the High Speed Rail effectively makes this requirement impossible to meet.

Expect some more lawsuits—paid for by the cap and trade money!

California High Speed Rail Authority Forfeits Cap and Trade Money
Assemblyman Hadley bill redirects funds to local transit

Assemblyman David Hadley,  3/23/16

Lost in the recent announcement that the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is shifting its initial route to northern California was the fact that this route is ineligible for $600 million in cap and trade funds. In the 2014 budgetary process, the legislature designated cap and trade funds to the High Speed Rail project on the basis that it would provide pollution relief to underserved communities in the Los Angeles Basin. The new route now excludes these underserved communities and removes the entire basis for High Speed Rail receiving these cap and trade funds.

Today, Assemblyman David Hadley (R-Torrance) announced the introduction of Assembly Bill 1717, which will redirect those forfeited cap and trade dollars to fund local transit projects that directly benefit disadvantaged communities.

“The High Speed Rail Authority’s decision to build the northern California route breaks the promise made to Southern California taxpayers. My legislation will ensure that cap and trade dollars go to the disadvantaged communities they are meant to help,” said Assemblyman Hadley.

In 2014, the legislature passed Senate Bill 862, which provided that 25 percent of all cap and trade dollars must go toward benefiting low income Californians. With 60 percent of the state’s disadvantaged communities in Southern California, the change in route for the High Speed Rail effectively makes this requirement impossible to meet.

“It’s clear to me that SB 862 authorized funding only for the specific segment identified in the 2012 Business Plan. The bill did not contain language allowing CHSRA to change its mind in a future Business Plan on where funds can be spent,” said David Schonbrunn, president of the Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund (TRANSDEF).

In its 2012 business plan, the CHSRA made a commitment to the California Legislature when it asserted that in exchange for cap and trade funding, it would build the first leg of the High Speed Rail System south, and would accelerate construction of the Burbank to Palmdale segment.

In a letter addressed to Senator Fran Pavley on June 14, 2014, the HSRA committed to use the cap and trade funds granted to the agency through the Senator’s SB 862 to “accelerate work on the segment from Burbank to Palmdale… The Burbank-Palmdale segment, which potentially could become an operating segment on its own, would accelerate benefits to the Los Angeles region.”

AB 1717 will devote the cap and trade funding that HSRA has forfeited to fund the Transportation Agency for the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, which in turn will help the communities of southern California and contribute greatly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for the state.

Assemblyman David Hadley represents the 66th Assembly District, which includes the South Bay communities of Torrance, Gardena, Lomita, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and portions of Los Angeles.