>No system is going to happen without substantial input from state govs
>and the private sector. The Feds are not going to bear the whole risk
>of a complete system.
And it's a bad year for getting things rolling in California:
<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-budget17-2009feb17,0,4984315.story>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-budget17-2009feb17,0,4984315.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Legislature adjourns with no budget; governor prepares to lay off 10,000
In addition to shutting down public-works projects, Schwarzenegger administration moves toward massive state layoffs as legislators again fail to garner the final GOP vote needed to pass a budget. By Jordan Rau and Eric Bailey
February 17, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento With lawmakers still unable to deliver a budget after three days of intense negotiations, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepared to lay off 10,000 government workers and his administration said it would halt the last 275 state-funded public works projects still in operation.
The projects, which cost $3.8 billion and include upgrades to 18 bridges and roads in Los Angeles County to protect them from collapsing in earthquakes, had been allowed to continue as others were suspended because the state was running out of cash.
The projects to be suspended today had been exempted from a November stop order because of the significant financial cost of canceling contracts, the expense of resuming them or the public-health or public-safety ramifications. The list also includes work to eliminate arsenic in the Central Valley town of Live Oak and half-built highway construction projects.
Schwarzenegger had delayed sending out pink slips since Friday, hoping that lawmakers would soon approve a budget. But they failed Monday to find a third GOP vote in the state Senate to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to pass a budget -- a requirement that essentially gives the minority Republicans veto power. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said layoff notices would go out today.
Late Monday evening, both houses of the Legislature adjourned and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) ordered senators back to the chamber at 10 a.m. today, saying they would stay until a budget passed.