California high-speed rail board delays key finance plan after lawmakers push back

Following a stunning rebuke by the State Assembly, the board of California’s high-speed rail authority this week put off approving a crucial 2020 business plan, a sign it has agreed to reassess the project’s current blueprint. “We will use this time to review the project’s status and identify a path forward in partnership with policymakers and the public, while at the same time, working to ensure that we continue to meet our federal obligations and the requirements of Proposition 1A.” In a letter on Monday to Rendon, rail authority vice chairman Tom Richards, a Fresno developer, said the authority “shares your concerns as well as those of chair Frazier’s and his colleagues.” Richards pledged to conduct further analysis of the project’s plans. The rail authority will need Rendon and other Assembly members’ support to appropriate about $4.5 billion out of bond funds by early next year for continuing work in the Central Valley, regardless of what position the Senate takes. Stuart Flashman, an attorney who represents plaintiffs who brought the suit, said he believes “the authority is probably working behind the scenes with legislators to put together a substitute business plan.” Flashman said he suspects that plan would only fund completion of 119 miles of track legally required under a federal grant agreement and then hand that system over for use by Amtrak.