Bullet train to San Diego… or to nowhere?

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Gov. Jerry Brown will be in San Diego Friday to talk
up his budget proposal.

Brown, who will start the day in Sacramento and speak at San Diego City
Hall about 12:30 p.m., is expected to discuss a constitutional amendment for
establishing a reserve fund to help stabilize the state's boom-or-bust cycles.
Voters would have the final say on the issue in November.

He is expected to direct about $250 million in revenue from the state's
pollution credit program to the high-speed rail project, according to published
reports. Legal challenges have crippled long-term financing for the “bullet
train,” although the state has secured some $3.4 billion in federal funding.

Both proposals could meet with opposition from some of his political
allies, including unions and environmentalists. Brown outraged some
environmentalists last year when he approved a $500 million loan from the
state's cap-and-trade pollution credit program to the state's general fund.

Brown, who is still working to comply with federal court orders to
reduce California's prison population, is also facing drought-related problems
as the state moves into a third year of below-normal rainfall.

In the Legislature, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Senate President pro
Tem Darrell Steinberg, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Torlakson have lined up behind a proposal to make pre-kindergarten universal
for 4-year-olds, which would cost an estimated $1 billion annually when fully
implemented in 2020.