Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Huber's Peripheral Canal Bill Dies in Committee

It was clear that Rep. Huber's AB 1534 bill had no chance of passing out of committee. (AB 1534 required a legistlative vote of approval before constructing the peripheral canal, and required the LAO to perform a fiscal analysis of the peripheral canal.) The failure of the committee to 2nd a motion to vote on the bill is annoying and cowardly, but politically understandable and entirely predictable.

Since she first introduced it last fall, I was hoping that Rep. Huber might break this bill apart so that the legislative vote would not derail the study piece. Similar to the delta flow study required in the water package, I thought there should be a requirement for a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of the peripheral canal (whatever variation the BDCP settles upon) following the standards of the Federal Office of Management and Budget.


I think an LAO fiscal analysis is a good suggestion as well, although not the same as a cost-benefit analysis and fiscal impact is not necessarily the key issue. Is a bill really necessary to get the LAO's input?

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