Massive California bond measure stalls in legislature

Massive California bond measure stalls in legislature    A plan by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to let voters decide if they wanted to fund infrastructure development with a massive bond sale has been stymied by state legislators, at least for a few months.
   Republican members of the California legislature, scared off by the huge amounts of money involved in the governor's planned $222 million Strategic Growth Plan, undermined Schwarzenegger's efforts to get a bond measure vote on the June ballot. The plan was to ask voters to authorize a $49 billion bond sale for the state's schools, jails and infrastructure, including $19 billion for the creaking highway network.
   But the California Assembly approved only a $4.1-billion borrowing plan to shore up the state’s levees and $19 billion more for school construction, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. And late Wednesday night, the state Senate declined to act on either measure, leaving the bond measures to wait until November.
   Alan Lowenthal, a powerful Democrat in the state Senate, and one of the leading political figures in the goods movement arena, predicted in a February interview with American Shipper that the bonds would have to wait until at least the November election.
   'We're not getting these bonds on the June ballot,' he said. 'There are just too many unanswered questions.'
   Wednesday, Lowenthal spoke at a port issues forum in Long Beach and said that the fact that transportation funding had been sliced out was disappointing.
   Revenue from the bonds — along with matching private sector and public funds — are considered vital to refurbishing the state's road network and goods movement corridors.