The proposal to accelerate the high -speed California railway fails

From Yue Stella Yu and Jean QuangCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

A legislative proposal aimed at accelerating high -speed rail construction in California has met its fate on Friday, writing problems with the already expensive and long -term project.

Senate Bill 445Author of Sen. Wiener of San Francisco, which aims to optimize permits and the acquisition of the right on the road to the project, alleviating the restrictions that supporters say significantly slowly building. The proposal supported by the California high -speed rail organ followed Inspector General This found that these negotiations cause “significant delays in graphics”.

But facing a strong opposition by local authorities and utilities, the measure was very changed, first erased after leaving the Senate, after which it changed significantly, as it was fired through three hearing at the Assembly Committee for one week.

On Friday, he died in a procedure known as the “tension file”, where legislative legislation quickly cuts the legislation, which is considered too expensive – and also abandons contradictory or political risk bills in the process – without much explanation.

“This was still a major job,” chairman of budget loans for the Assembly Buffy WicksDemocrat from Oklland, he said of Wiener’s measure.

Wiener called the decision “unhappy”, but promised to return in a statement with similar legislation next year “to deal with the violated permit system that contributed to delay and exceeding costs.”

“The Californians predominate that our country should have a modern, state rail system,” he said. “It is essential to reduce traffic congestion, to deal with our climate goals, and to sustainably grow our economy.”

The hearing on Friday was noted the second weaning of legislative proposals this season, when MPs were considering mass measures with a price of $ 50,000 or more in the Senate and $ 150,000 or more in the assembly. The measures surviving the voices on Friday will be considered over the next two weeks by the two chambers.

Budget uncertainty continues to be outlined. Projected A budget deficit of $ 12 billion In June, they forced governor Gavin Newm and legislative leaders to limit care for undocumented immigrants and to borrow from other state reserves. California also has Cunning with President Donald Trump in court Above federal dollars, he wants to refuse the state, from financing education to disaster help.

About 27% of the measures in the two chambers were rejected on Friday: 70 bills in the Assembly and 117 Senate bills.

Chairman of Senate Budget Loans Anna CabalaleroMerced Democrat has accused this year’s decisions on the Trump Tariff Administration and is moving to abandon funding from health care, higher education and others in California.

“But for these actions – tariffs, not helping some of the disasters we encountered early – we would be in a much better fiscal position,” she said. “Our biggest concern is the budget – the budget, with what the federal government will make us that we have not yet been able to calculate.”

The Cabalero Committee killed some meetings bills to extend the healthcare coverage and amend other legislation to release Medi-Cal, facing redundancies earlier this year, from new requirements. This included Assembly Bill 432Which requires health plans to cover the care of menopause symptoms, but has been changed to exclude Medi-Cal. The Committee also delayed next year AB 1405, a bill requiring the state To audit the use of artificial intelligence technology.

Legislators also rejected AB 938which would allow people to clear their records of violent crimes they committed because they were victims of trafficking or domestic violence; Democrats’ efforts to reduce penalty this year have stopped as voters signal that they turn more stringed in crimeS

In the Assembly legislators sophisticated measure This would allow voters to decide to allow state and local political campaigns to take advantage of public funds – to the delight of the good state defenders who have been trying to keep private money from politics for years. Financing public campaigns has been banned in California since 1988, but supporters claim that public funding will allow small donors and load more skilled candidates.

If approved by the full legislature, the financing of public campaigns will appear on the newsletter in November 2026. Wix called it a “great priority”, arguing that wealthy groups were able to spend big ads to defeat adverse candidates.

“It’s like this type of wild, wild west where anyone can go with hundreds of thousands of dollars and drown you,” she said.

Public transparency of the cutting block

Friday legislators also fix several measures that could protect public information or make it difficult for people to personally engage their elected representatives.

They change and advanced Sb 707A proposal to resolve local employees and different groups to continue to attend public meetings remotely, a policy designed to offer flexibility during the Covid-19 pandemic, which good state groups claim that it also makes it difficult for the public to face their elected representatives.

The legislation will also require more large cities to offer remote access to the public and to promote civic commitment. But groups such as the California Association of Special Areas said the requirements were too “difficult” and could expose them to lawsuits.

SB 495A measure that requires insurers to report more information, but release it from public disclosure, also survive.

The assembly legislators have also approved two measures to study and monitor reparations for descendants of ex -enslaved people, despite the opposition of some reparation defenders who complain that tactics aim to delay real compensation.

Sb 437It will give California State University up to $ 6 million to explore the methodology to check the status of someone’s descendant. Sb 518 It would set up a new agency within the State Department of Justice to monitor reparations.

Posted Seni. Akila Weber PearsonThey said they would apply recommendations from the State Special Group for Reparations. Wix called them “critical.”

But Chris Lodson, an advocate of the coalition for just and fair California, told a hearing in July that measures would only guarantee “delay, bureaucracy and confusion”.

Lodgson told Calmatters on Friday that the state should already issue financial compensation to descendants of slaves. “Start cutting checks,” he said. “We have to face directly against the economic status of our people.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.