Gov. Jerry Brown’s two very pricey legacy projects took hits in the Legislature last week. They were light jabs, and he didn’t even flinch.
But the fact that some fellow Democrats had the temerity to challenge the popular governor was a sign of growing legislative — and public — skepticism about these highly controversial pet projects.
One legislative committee advanced a bill that would force the Brown administration to be more open and candid about the $64-billion, zigzagging bullet train.
Another panel approved a bill that would require a public vote before the state could gouge two mammoth, $15.5-billion water tunnels under the environmentally fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
In a separate water action that was not necessarily a slap at Brown — but could cause him pain — a third committee cleared a bill that would compel counties to move more aggressively to control the draining of aquifers, especially by thirsty nut orchards.
Brown may very well step in and squash these bills like bugs before they can really annoy him.
He almost certainly would veto the train and tunnel bills if they reached him. And he’d probably try to avoid the groundwater legislation because it would drive corporate agriculture nuts.
