The Buckingham

With a final vote of 21-16 the approval of a high-speed rail plan was decided. The deal consisted of $8 billion in funding to being the construction process. the rail will connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. It will be over a 130-mile section through California’s agricultural area.

Democratic Governor Jerry Brown was in total favor of this plan. He believes it will create more jobs and help the highly popular state of California have less car and plane traffic. Along with Governor Brown, Unions too in support of this project. On the opposing side were the Republicans. They believe it is a waste of money that could be used other places such as healthcare or education.

Since the bill was approved the financing from the state and federal will include the issuance of $2.6 billion in state bonds, then $3.2 billion in federal funds. The federeal funds will help start the construction of the track in Central Valley. The construction is likely to being at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013. This bill was passed on Thursday with a 51-27 vote. It approves the spending of over $2 billion in federal, state, and local funds that will help start the building of the track in urban areas that will eventually connect statewide.

With California’s unemployment rate being 10.8 % this project will help that number decrease.

The project is expected to take decades to complete.