Dive Brief:
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California Gov. Jerry Brown has thrown his anti-Proposition 53 campaign into overdrive in advance of next week's vote, The New York Times reported.
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The measure would require voter approval for any revenue bond–backed state project of $2 billion or more, but Brown said this would increase costs for a bevy of state projects and would "lead to lawsuits."
- Proposition 53 exempts the vast majority of local bond projects, leaving only megaprojects — like the California bullet train and major state infrastructure initiatives — subject to the measure's ballot requirements, The Sacramento Bee explained. Critics of Brown's offense say he is exaggerating the impact to safeguard his own legacy projects.
Dive Insight:
Proposition 53 — also called the No Blank Checks initiative — was spearheaded by wealthy California farmers and activists Dean and Joan Cortopassi, who contend California has too much debt and that politicians shouldn't have a "blank check" backed by taxpayer money. The pair was spurred to action by state plans for water-diversion tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area and have reportedly spent $5 million of their own money to ensure the measure made it to the voters.
If Proposition 53 passes, it could also stop additional state funding for the $64 billion California High Speed Rail Authority's planned bullet train between Northern and Southern California. The state has already committed $10 billion in voter-approved general obligation bonds to the project, but officials fear that voters could vote no on future funding, given that the rail system has incurred highly publicized cost overruns and delays.
The project budget has almost doubled from its original estimate of $33 billion, and general contractor Tutor Perini has been issued almost $64 million in change orders due to project delays. To accelerate the schedule, the authority decided to scrap plans to bust through a mountain range for the rail's first segment out of Los Angeles in favor of a northern route instead. Those plans also changed when residents in Merced, CA, protested that development of their stop had been pushed aside.
These hurdles were magnified when the Los Angeles Times launched a series of investigative reports into the rail authority, which led to a series of special hearings and increased public scrutiny of the project and its viability.