Dive Brief:

• The referendum that approved high-speed rail transit for California requires that the state show clearly how it will pay for the huge public works project, and a state judge says the state's not there yet.
• The state also lost decisions about bond certification and bypassing environmental review, but paying for a $30-billion first leg of the line, from Merced south, is the biggest rock on the tracks for the California High-Speed Rail Authority — and for contractors who would like the project to become a real chance for work.
• Two added headaches are that $3.3 billion in federal stimulus support has a use-it-or-lose-it deadline in late 2017, and Congress has not been as hospitable to backing new transportation solutions as it once was.

Dive Insight:

If California has to dig into its own — meaning taxpayers' — pockets in order to cobble together money for the project, it will not be the first time that has happened in a state. Backers of making Boston a rail hub in 1835 realized they were not going to get government money to prove the idea was an economic advantage for the area, so they found a way to finance it themselves. And the rest of the country jumped on the idea.