Arnold Schwarzenegger

July 18, 2005 Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 144, legislation to finance and complete the construction of the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

January 5, 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger launched the most ambitious rebuilding of California’s infrastructure in half a century. The Strategic Growth Plan (SGP) was designed to restore and expand our highways, roads, and transit systems as well as our schools, courthouses, ports, levees, and water supply systems. By investing and leveraging billions of dollars in the state’s infrastructure over the next twenty years, the Governor sought to maintain California’s vibrant economic growth, improve the environment, and ensure a high quality of life for generations to come.

October 27, 2006 The Governor signed Executive Order S-21-06, Twenty-First-Century Government: Expanding Broadband Access and Usage in California, which tasked the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency with developing and implementing a statewide broadband strategy.

November 7, 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger signed and California voters approved a historic infrastructure bond package (Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E)—the largest in our nation’s history—authorizing $42 billion in general obligation bonds to rebuild California’s roads, bridges, classrooms, housing, levees, and rail systems.  These GO bond dollars will leverage more than $200 billion in federal, local, and private dollars for the largest infrastructure investment in half a century.

May 3, 2007 The Governor signed AB 900, his landmark, omnibus prison reform legislation to reduce overcrowding by building more beds, reducing “bad beds,” and transferring some inmates out of state. AB 900 also has a unique focus on rehabilitation and providing for “re-entry facilities” to prepare soon-to-be parolees to successfully return to society. In addition, the law expands parole officers’ ability to assess recidivism risks of parolees and focus their attention on those who need it most.

September 24, 2007 Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 943, which authorized the Northern California Women’s Facility in Stockton to be utilized as the first secure community re-entry facility under AB 900.

October 15, 2007 Using $483 million of Proposition 1B to draw an additional $86 million of local funds, Governor Schwarzenegger broke ground on a project to relieve traffic congestion in San Diego’s highly congested North Coast Corridor. This project has the potential to decrease traffic congestion 20 percent.

January 11, 2008 Using $167 million from Proposition 1E funds, the Governor broke ground on a $683 million water-infrastructure modernization project to double the Sacramento area’s flood protection from 100-year flood protection to 200-year flood protection.

February 6, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger expedited the implementation of $211 million in Proposition 1E money to fund four high-priority levee-improvement projects, one each in Sacramento and Sutter County and two in Yuba County.

April 29, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, under legal authority from AB 900, moved 3,536 inmates to private facilities in four other states, thus reducing prison overcrowding and “bad beds.” By June 2009, more than 11,000 bad beds had been eliminated.

June 6, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 1252, legislation to expedite $300 million in Propositions 1C and 1B funding for transportation and housing projects up and down the state.

July 19, 2008 Along with Governor Ed Rendell (D-Penn) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor Schwarzenegger formed Building America’s Future (BAF) to bring about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure. Governor Schwarzenegger then used this nonprofit entity as a platform to lobby the federal government to increase infrastructure investment for the country.

September 26, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 1407, which allows the issuance of up to $5 billion in lease-revenue bonds to finance the construction of critical-needs courthouse construction projects, and supports the debt service for the bonds by raising specified criminal and civil fees and fines.

November 4, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger championed Proposition 1A (2008), the Safe, Reliable, High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century; it was approved by 52.6 percent of the voters. This proposition authorized the issuance of $9.95 billion of general obligation bonds that will partially fund a $40 billion, 800-mile, high-speed train under the supervision of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

November 9, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers successfully crafted a comprehensive water agreement to ensure a reliable water supply for future generations, restore the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, and—for the first time in California history—monitor groundwater levels, mandate conservation, and crack down on illegal water diversions. The plan is financed in part with an $11.14 billion general obligation bond that will be matched with federal, local, and private dollars for a total investment of more than $30 billion in California’s water infrastructure over the next ten years. The GO bond, scheduled for the 2012 ballot, will provide public investment for drought relief, water supply reliability, Delta sustainability, statewide water system operational improvements, conservation and watershed protection, groundwater protection, and water recycling and water conservation programs. This broad reform package is composed of four major elements:

• Establishes the framework to achieve the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply to California and restoring and enhancing the Delta ecosystem, including financing the public portion of a new canal system to protect the Delta while transporting water from north to south.
• For the first time in California history, requires that local agencies monitor the elevation of groundwater basins to help better manage water during both normal precipitation years and drought conditions.
• Requires urban water agencies to reduce statewide per-capita water consumption 20 percent by 2020, and, for the first time, requires the development of agricultural water management plans.
• For the first time in California history, authorizes regulatory agencies to crack down on illegal water diversions from the Delta by removing an exemption from reporting water use by in-Delta water users.

February 20, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger signed the 2009–2010 budget, which allows unlimited public-private partnerships for state transportation projects.

March 27, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger signed ABX3 20, which provides for the distribution of roughly $2.6 billion for highways and roads made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The new legislation modifies existing law to allow greater delegation to regional transportation agencies for selecting projects and programming their dollars, and gives Caltrans the flexibility to use $310 million of federal economic stimulus funds to move some Proposition 1B projects more quickly to construction.

April 22, 2009 Under Governor Schwarzenegger, California became the first state in the nation to sell Build America Bonds, restarting more than 5,000 California infrastructure projects that had been on hold.

May 8, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger announced the construction of the largest highway project in the nation to date using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The I-405 Widening Project, which had been on hold since 2001, will ease traffic congestion and create 18,000 jobs.

October 11, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 729, extending until January 1, 2015, the sunset date on the design-build statute applicable to public transit operators.

January 28, 2010 California received $2.3 billion in federal ARRA money—the largest amount in the nation—for high-speed, intercity rail construction.