Alameda Corridor

Hurray for Epstein’s comments regarding the acquisition of railroad rights of way for the Alameda Corridor project. It’s clear, we as Californians face our most acute economic challenge in decades. Equally as clear, state and local government must foster economic development-infrastructure projects such as the Alameda Corridor to bring jobs and an improved standard of living to Southern California.

However, it became sorely apparent after a joint hearing on the Alameda Corridor project co-chaired by Assemblywoman Karnette and myself that railroad rights-of-way valuation procedures and guidelines were highly subjective and indeed unfair to California taxpayers. Consider these facts: Southern Pacific originally valued the Alameda Corridor tracks at approximately $500 million. Yet, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles received a figure around $78 million for the exact same land. Even more disturbing, railroads have received over $1 billion in taxpayer dollars from state and localities for rights of way in the last few years.

California’s economic conditions (not to mention good government) dictate that we must be highly efficient with public money. For this reason, I have introduced AB 738 that asks the California Transportation Commission to develop recommended procedures for valuing the different railroad rights of way. This legislation will force the state to forsake its cavalier attitude toward rights-of-way reimbursements.

MARTHA ESCUTIA, Assembly, D-Huntington Park