Free Republic

Richard Gephardt, the former congressional leader and two-time presidential candidate, recently dropped by California's Capitol to chat with a fellow Democrat, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. The subject was not politics but private toll roads, according to people familiar with the meeting. Gephardt works for Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that is making millions advising Chicago and Indiana on how to sell toll roads to private companies. That idea, largely resisted in California, is now back on center stage here as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $222-billion proposal to revamp roads, levees and schools across the state. His plan...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new chief of staff, who is spearheading a $9-billion plan to improve California's water system, was paid $120,000 last year by a Los Angeles developer seeking to build a massive water storage project under the Mojave Desert. According to interviews and her financial disclosure statement, Susan P. Kennedy earned $10,000 per month in 2005 as a consultant to Cadiz Real Estate, operated by her longtime friend Keith Brackpool. For nearly a decade, the British-born Brackpool has tried unsuccessfully to put together a public-private partnership that would use the aquifers under his San Bernardino property to...

California could dramatically accelerate its use of public-private partnerships -- arrangements in which a for-profit company builds a transit project at its own expense in exchange for the toll revenues it generates -- under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to pump $222 billion into the state's infrastructure. "We believe there are literally billions of dollars available in the private market to greatly enhance our infrastructure, particularly in roads, that can be brought to bear," said Sean Walsh, director of the governor's office of planning and research. Resulting projects such as toll lanes, truck-only lanes and expanded rail lines would ease gridlock...

China may pave way for imports PORTS: Foreign investors show interest in Southern California transportation projects. In a twist, foreign funds may be arriving to help build the roads and rails of Southern California. With congestion in Southern California and the Inland Empire threatening to slow the pace of imported goods, transportation officials are looking to draw overseas investment to help pay for improvements to the region's transportation network. China, in particular, may be a willing source. The fast-growing Asian nation, whose exports through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have grown by 20 percent in four of...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking lawmakers to scrap a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond measure already on the November ballot to clear the way for his massive, $222.6 billion public works program. "We could not afford the entire package of infrastructure (in the governor's plan) if we did the $10 billion for high-speed rail," state Finance Director Mike Genest said Friday. "We did not see it being affordable in a 10-year cycle." He called high-speed rail "a visionary idea (that's) kind of far in the future." Democratic supporters of high-speed rail said they would try to put...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious plan to spend $222 billion on a series of public works projects relies on several financial and political assumptions, potentially complicating his efforts to rebuild the state's freeways, transit systems, schools and levees. Much of the money would come from sources outside state government - including the federal government and private investments that are all but certain. The governor also will need a two-thirds majority of the Legislature to approve the proposal, where dissent already is evident, even within his own party. And he needs voters to approve $68 billion in bonds over...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday launched a super-sized plan to rebuild the very foundations of California — a $222-billion construction project to fortify freeways, schools, jails, ports and waterways. Schwarzenegger used his annual State of the State speech to outline a decade-long blueprint for reshaping California to its core. If successful, he would be author of the state's largest public building program since the 1960s, when former Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown helped California absorb millions of new residents during a postwar boom. In the 23-minute address to lawmakers, which was as much about rebuilding his own image as...