(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
The $9B of high-speed rail funds from 2008’s Prop. 1A are bond funds, not free money to throw at any ol’ project. 
Voters want funds spent
on HSR, not local transit
Re: “Divert the high-speed rail funds to Bay Area projects” (Letter to the editor, Eastbaytimes.com, May 11):
The letter-writer, and the current Legislature, don’t seem to understand that the $9 billion of high-speed rail funds from 2008’s Prop. 1A are bond funds. They’re not just free money to be thrown at whatever project sounds good.
Voters were promised that the funds would be used to construct a statewide high-speed rail system, not local transit improvements.
If the Legislature now wants to reallocate the funds, it needs to put a new measure on the ballot and get voter approval. Otherwise, it is thumbing its nose at the state constitution, which says that bond measures are contracts between the state government and the voters.Stuart Flashman
Oakland
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