Kings County CAHSR Lawsuit

[Ben]

There is currently a lawsuit from Kings County, California that claims the current California high-speed rail proposal does not conform to the Prop 1A measure passed in 2008, with the plaintiffs hoping to stop the sale of $2.7 billion in bonds that would match the $3.3 billion in federal HSR money. Lets say the plaintiffs win their case. What would happen after that? Would the current blended plan proposal be put on the ballot for vote by Californians, or would the original, unblended plan go to the state legislature for a vote? Would the entire project be stopped indefinitely? Would the federal funding be redistributed?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Based on what I've seen it is extremely unlikely that the CAHSR project will be stopped at this stage. I've been on both the for and against sides of major multi-billion dollar projects and although it can take many years to get moving once the process reaches a certain point it can become incredibly hard to stop long enough to truly kill it. The legal process is notoriously fickle, and the specifics on the result may still be in play, but when this much money is on the line I'd place my bet on inertia winning the day. The full project will require tens of billions more that remain unfunded, but it's not like building another set of highways is going to be any cheaper.