Editorial gets Assembly speaker's attention

It seems we've salvaged -- at least for the moment -- the $1 billion in funding to upgrade gritty Highway 99. The Assembly speaker now is on record supporting the Highway 99 money. Fabian Núñez, the Democrat who runs the Assembly, sent a letter to The Bee in response to our editorial on Thursday warning that big-city legislators were talking about stealing the Valley’s transportation funding. Here’s the opening of the speaker’s letter to The Bee:

“In response to the Feb. 23 editorial, 'Highway 99: When is it our turn?': The Fresno Bee was right. Highway 99 is 'the lifeline of the Valley’ and a critical component of the state's overall freeway system.” He went on to say that the $1 billion for Highway 99 remains in the Democrats’ plan for the Valley.

Here’s the link to the entire letter, which ran Saturday: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/lets_ed/story/11848562p-12561557c.html

Here's the link to editorial in Thursday's Bee: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/11835832p-12550548c.html

The Bee's editorial shining a light on the possibility of the Valley losing the money made a difference, just as a legislative committee began carving up the bond pie. Now if the Legislature tries to pull back, at least we have the speaker’s words on the importance of the Highway 99 bond money.

But Valley legislators must remain vigilant. The Highway 99 bond money proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could be removed by the state Senate or in some last-minute deal that seems to be so prevalent in the Capitol.