As governments face deficits, former Gov. Jerry Brown urges big spending to ‘build stuff’

Spend more money to “build stuff,” says former Gov. Jerry Brown, because the state and country need more forward-looking innovations such as California’s bullet-train line.

The state is facing a $68 billion budget gap and the federal government’s fiscal 2024 deficit is projected to be more than $1.6 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

But Brown, in a conference call with reporters and other state officials Friday, urged looking at a bigger picture.

“America is not going to be a leading factor in the world if you can’t build stuff. Yeah It’s gonna cost some money. You can’t predict it exactly,” said Brown, 85, who served as governor from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019.

The officials were touting the $3.1 billion grant from the Biden administration for the high-speed rail project announced earlier this week.

Think of projects such as the high-speed train as investments, and important steps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, the former governor suggested.

“There are a lot of carpers and complainers who …try to stop it,” said Brown, who has been an advocate of the project for decades. “The fact that the president and all these experts have found it appropriate to put up billions of dollars, that’s a big vote of confidence.

“This is a question of can America make it or not. And I say we can and this project is gonna lead us on our way,” said Brown.

Officials on the call hailed the federal grant as crucial to getting the project built.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, called it a “game changer,” and Biden senior adviser Mitch Landrieu predicted the grant “is really going to supercharge this.”

Help for building the line

The money is expected to go toward planning and construction of the bullet-train line through Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley. It will include extensions to Merced and Bakersfield.

About $2.8 billion of the allotment, which comes from the 2021 federal infrastructure legislation, will help with construction now taking place in the Valley.

The state’s High-Speed Rail Authority detailed earlier this year how it would use the money.

It plans to purchase six high-speed, electric-powered train sets for testing and eventual passenger service on its initial operating segment from downtown Merced, through Fresno and on to downtown Bakersfield. The funds will finance a second set of tracks, instead of just one, on the 119-mile stretch now under construction from north of Madera to Shafter.

The money will also help build a new high-speed rail station in downtown Fresno at Mariposa Street between G and H streets, and finish pre-construction work, including engineering and right-of-way acquisition, to extend the Valley line north from Madera into Merced and south from Shafter into Bakersfield.

The project has had an up-and-down history with the federal government. Democratic administrations have been friendly; Republicans have not.

The Obama administration gave the project about $3.5 billion from its recession recovery package more than 10 years ago. Other sources have contributed, including cap and trade funds raised for California’s greenhouse gas reduction program and $9.9 billion from a bond initiative that state voters approved in 2008.

But there have been delays and higher than expected costs.

In 2019, the Trump administration canceled a billion dollar contract, and Trump tweeted that California “has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion.”

The project is estimated to cost between $29.8 billion and $32.9 billion for completion of the Merced-Bakersfield line, and begin operating between 2030 and 2032, California High-Speed Rail Authority Chief Executive Officer Brian Kelly said Friday.

The Fresno Bee‘s Tim Sheehan contributed to this story.