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The half-cent sales tax increase that is projected to bring in $30 to $40 billion over the next 30 years and has been a focus for Metro in getting the proposal on November's ballot has been an long and stressful journey. Today did not help.
In an unexpected move that was a 3-2 vote, the LA County Board of Supervisors rejected putting the sales tax increase on November's ballot. Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe voted against the measure with Gloria Molina abstaining. If Sacramento politicians pass a bill allowing it to hit the ballot, it can still go to the election booth anyway, but it will have to be on a separate paper ballot that will cost Metro $10 million unless they take the issue to court to force the measure onto the normal ballot.
"Talk about opponents shooting themselves in the foot: With no sale tax there's no Eastside extension past Atlantic for Gloria Molina, no Foothill Gold Line for John Fasana and Mike Antonovich, and no increase in operating funding for the BRU's supporters," said green blogger Darrell Clarke, who expanded his thoughts on a post, in an e-mail to LAist.
Molina, who abstained said the proposal is a "nice concocted scheme... And every single and every step of the way it has made arrangements at how they were going to get more for one side of town versus the other side." She, who represents communities around East LA, is referring to the Westside's "Subway to the Sea" and Expo Line Phase II projects.
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WTF?!?!!?
What do we have to do to get some common sense public transit in LA?
Is there anything I can do from Arizona? I plan to move back some day and would love to see SOMETHING being done to improve our infrastructure!!
All you autocentric suckers chained to your cars better get used to sitting in even more bumper to bumper traffic, with your engines idling, for even longer periods of time. That must suck sitting there going no where, watching your paycheck burn away polluting the air.
shouldn't that be million with a B?
right you are about the "b," oops!
Its getting harder and harder to justify moving back to LA. Sad.
And, yet another reason why I want to get the fuck out.
This is preposterous.
It was a very weird meeting. People didn't seem to know what really happened after the votes were done. Knabe, who's just anti-tax, makes some sense at least. Antonovich and Molina just shot transit expansion in the foot.
There's a good op-ed in today's Times about this...
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-transit6-2008aug06,0,3740213.story
SO on of Molina's Gripes is the westside gets a subway and the eastside only gets a light rail? Are you kidding me? Thanks for trying to keep this city decades behind....
ITA nomad this is very short sighted of them.
Bottom line:
Is gas going to get any cheaper? (cheaper than a few cents a gallon that is)
Is gridlock going to get any better?
Is the cost of building up our mass transit infrastructure going to get any less expensive?
The answer to all of the questions is no, so delaying this tax by quibbling over particulars is only going to make things worse.
This is why the board of supes for the county needs to be revamped so the positions are not de-facto lifetime ones. There should be term-limits so that new blood has to come in.
James
Jesus FUCKING Christ. What the hell? AHsdaljfkhadsklfhjadhlasfjlhkassdflhjkasdf
Stupid Gloria Molina. What a moron.
Good idea morrissey.
Also, IMO, the districts need to be way smaller. These supervisor's districts are larger than most U.S. Congressional districts. How can constituents get any kind of effective representation in such large districts?
Those who are genuinely concerned about the proposed transportation sales tax measure are invited to attend this Saturday's meeting of Southern California Transit Advocates, where Metro Board member Pam O'Connor will be the guest speaker.
Our meetings are held in the 4th floor community room of Angelus Plaza, 311 S. Hill St., one block north of Pershing Square Red/Purple Line Station (the location is also served by several bus lines, including 4, 10, 81 and 94).
The meeting begins at 1:00pm.