California rail officials want to tap remaining bond funds
By KATHLEEN RONAYNEFebruary 9, 2021 GMT
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Officials in charge of California’s slow-going high-speed rail project want to tap $4.1 billion in bond money to finish ongoing construction in the Central Valley, completing a segment of track that is just a fraction of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line voters approved the money for in 2008.
Project leaders presented the latest change on how to pay for the project and what it will cost on Tuesday to the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s board of directors. The new use of bond money, if approved, would go toward finishing 119 miles of track in the Central Valley. The state now expects to finish that construction by 2023, a year delay from the last proposal.
Business lobby open to penalty for first-offense employee misclassification
Business leaders would be OK with a flat $500 penalty on the first offense when a company wrongly classifies its employees as independent contractors, but only if the penalty is waived if the offending business can get into compliance with the law within 60 days, Jim Patterson with the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry told a state task force.
Louisiana is the only state with a misclassification statute that lets first-time offenders off with a warning. Critics say lax enforcement allows bad actors to have a competitive advantage over companies that follow the law, which have to pay for more of the taxes that fund unemployment benefits.
LOS ANGELES The first phase of the California bullet train a 171-mile link in the Central Valley will be reduced to a single track as its estimated cost has risen by $2 billion, according to a revised business plan for the project released Tuesday.
The California High Speed Rail Authority said
Officials in charge of California's high-speed rail project want to tap $4.1 billion in bond money voters approved for a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles line to finish ongoing construction in the Central Valley.