Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have expanded oversight of California’s high-speed rail project, weeks after an audit found nearly $600,000 in unallowable travel expenses by project consultants.
Assembly Bill 1608 would have given the Office of the Inspector General for high-speed rail more flexibility to hire staff and manage certain contracts.
Newsom recently said contractors accused of waste and abuse should be held accountable.
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, the bill’s author, said it would have increased transparency by requiring the inspector general to make its reports public.
“Concerns were initially raised that this bill would keep information confidential,” Wilson said. “In fact, this bill does the exact opposite, by requiring the inspector general to make its reports public, which is not required under current law.”
The inspector general’s office said in a statement that it was disappointed by the veto but remains committed to overcoming the administrative hurdles the bill would have addressed.
Lou Thompson, a former chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s peer-review group, said the larger issue is whether the state can secure the money needed to complete the project.
Thompson said the project’s estimated cost makes independent oversight especially important.
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“Given that this is potentially somewhere between a $130 billion and $230 billion project, I think that it would be hard to waste money on overseeing the project,” Thompson said. “And I think the money spent on the inspector general’s work would be money well spent.”
Newsom said he believes the project is moving forward and that the Central Valley segment will be part of the nation’s first fully functioning high-speed rail system.