Photo by [Kwasi B.] via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr If you've been following state Assembly Bill 2321, which simply allows Metro to place a half-cent sales tax increase proposal on this November's ballot, it's been a long, long summer. Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA says bill author Mike Feuer's office is confident it will pass. "...the Governor has thirty days, until 11:59 P.M. on Tuesday, September 30, to veto the legislation or Measure......

Even though it is Labor Day weekend and the state has entered into a historic period without a budget, good news came Sunday for public transportation advocates and well-wishers. AB2321, the bill that would allow Metro to put a half-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot that could raise $30-40 billion for transportation projects over the next 30 years, took another critical step: the state Assembly passed it. That means two more steps until......

For those of you following AB 2321, a state assembly bill that would allow Metro to put a proposed half-cent sales tax increase on November's ballot (they say it could raise $30-40 billion dollars over 30 years), it passed out of the state senate this afternoon, according to Steve Hymon at the Bottleneck Blog. That means there are three more steps to go for a large increase for public transit funding in Los Angeles: 1)......

Photo by Salaam Allah West Coast Transitphotography KING! via Flickr A huge hurdle has been cleared so that a half-cent sales tax increase proposal can be on November's ballot. Yesterday afternoon, a state Senate committee approved the bill that allows LA County to ask for the tax hike. If it makes it there and is approved by voters, it could raise $30 to $40 billion a year over the next 30 years for public......

State Senator Jenny Oropeza represents coastal areas, including LAX, and also sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee that's currently deciding the fate of AB 2321 which will allow a measure asking the people to vote on a sales tax increase that would go towards transportation, mostly public transit projects like the "Subway to the Sea" and a Green Line extension to LAX. The airport extension is in the plan, but not written into the state......

It's amazing that it's so hard to allow the people of Los Angeles County to choose their own fate when it comes to taxes and public transportation. Two locally elected bodies have already given the go ahead (albeit a fight with one of them) to put a measure on November's ballot that will ask us residents if the sales tax should be kicked up a half-penny to raise $30 to $40 billion worth of......

Forget the LA County Board of Supervisors for a moment and listen to this: Gov. Schwarzenegger just made an ultimatum with state legislators: "Until the Legislature passes a budget that I can sign, I will not sign any bills that reach my desk," he said in a press conference this afternoon. What does that mean for a struggling bill called AB2321, which would allow a measure to go on the ballot in November asking residents......

Photo by Adan Garcia via Flickr 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......

The deadline to get props, measures and initiatives on this November's ballot is August 10. As for the proposed half-cent increase in sales tax for LA County for transportation projects, it has to go through a series of agonizing legal approvals to even make it to the point where the people get to vote on it. Metro has already approved it and the County Board of Supervisors will vote on it later today. But the......

Photo by Adan Garcia via Flickr Metro has voted to ask LA County residents on the November ballot on whether or not to raise the sales tax a half-penny for transit projects. However, the state has still not fully finished their process enabling the sales tax to be raised, That's why local state Assemblyman Mike Feuer has been working extremely hard on his bill, AB 2321, which would officially authorize Metro "to place a......

It is now up to state legislators to pass AB 2321, and if they do, the half-cent increase in sales tax to 8.75% approved by the Metro board today will be put in the hands of Los Angeles County residents when they go to vote on election day this November. If the sales tax proposal, now called Measure R, is approved, it could raise as much as $40 billion over the next 30 years for......

Today is the regularly scheduled Metro Board meeting. But there's nothing regular about it. Two very important measures that could give long lasting positive changes to public transit are up for a vote: an increase of the county's sales tax to raise money for projects like the "Subway to the Sea" and the long range transportation plan which would give the region a vision to work towards. The sales tax increase, which has a lot......

Photo by Adan Garcia via Flickr As an assembly bill that would enable Metro to put a half-cent sales tax increase on November's ballot makes its way towards the state Senate this month, a report released from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) said that such an increase would only cost people $25 extra per year (if the sales tax rate goes up, it will go from 8.25% to 8.75%, "translating to......

LA County's sales tax is already one of the highest in the state, but in the name of fixing this traffic and transportation problem (in which money seems to be the cure, according to some), Los Angeles based state assemblyman Mike Feuer has gotten his legislation, AB 2321, passed. It allows the Metro Board to place a proposal on November's ballot asking voters to raise the sales tax by a half-cent. "That would take the......