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Originally Posted by Pedestrian
So now we are reduced to hoping for some federal funding to keep things moving forward.
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The state has posted gigantic $20~ billion surpluses for several years and announced a $15 billion surplus back in January thanks to the collection of windfall capital gains from pandemic stock market speculation.
The recent surpluses have been used to shore up the state pension funds and establish a very large rainy day fund. Unfortunately, critics have succeeded in turning HSR into a political hot potato and Newsom, etc., are afraid to pull the trigger on selling bonds during the lowest interest rates in history.
For example, selling $100 billion 30-year bonds - let's go big here and build out Phase 1 and Phase 2 in one swoop - would cost about $4 billion/year. That's a drop in the bucket for California's gigantic budget. With federal funding imminent, the annual cost will be much lower if California's share turns out to be less than $50 billion.