The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s “funding situation has become increasingly risky,” the California State Auditor reported Tuesday.
That assessment, which the authority disputed, came just a week after Gov. Jerry Brown endorsed funding for the first phase of the 220-mph, $98 billion train from Anaheim to San Francisco, according to
the Orange County Register.
The authority needs a $2.7 billion appropriation from the Legislature this year to match a $3.3 billion federal grant to build the first 130-mile segment of track from Bakersfield to Chowchilla, north of Fresno, the Register reports.
The state appropriation would come from Proposition 1A, the voter-approved $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond, passed in 2008.
The Legislative Analyst and the Peer Review Group, a panel of transportation experts headed by Orange County Transportation Authority CEO Will Kempton, already have recommended against the appropriation.
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