MTA votes to seek sales tax hike to fund L.A. County transit, roads

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Before the measure can be placed on the ballot, the Legislature must authorize it, which Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he is confident will happen soon. A bill, AB 2321, by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) is pending in the Senate.

"This is a historic moment," Feuer told the MTA board before the vote. "We know our residents are calling on us to seize this moment. This is an opportunity that won't come again, not for a generation."

If approved by a required two-thirds majority, Measure R -- for relief, as in traffic relief -- would boost Los Angeles County's sales tax rate to 8.75%, tying it with Alameda County's for the highest in California.

Currently, one cent of the county's existing sales tax of 8.25 cents on the dollar goes for transportation projects in perpetuity. Voters approved a half-cent transportation tax in 1980 and another in 1990. The money has helped pay for bus purchases, construction of the Red Line subway and some light rail lines.

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. estimates that the new tax would cost each county resident an average of about $25 a year. The half-cent increase would, for example, translate into an extra $125 in sales taxes on the purchase of a $25,000 car for residents of the county.

MTA officials say the measure could raise $30 billion to $40 billion over its 30-year life span, depending on the state of the economy and consumer spending habits. About 65% of the revenue would be used to expand the county's bus and rail systems, while 35% would be earmarked for highways, streets and, potentially, bikeways and sidewalks.

The county's rail system comprises Metrolink, the Red and Purple lines subway system and the Blue, Green and Gold light rail lines. The MTA also operates one of the largest public-transit bus systems in the nation.

Thirteen mass transit projects and 16 road projects would split the money raised by the tax increase. There would also be about $6 billion to be shared by all the cities in the county for their own projects.

"This has the potential to provide funding for much needed transportation projects," said Douglas Failing, director of California Department of Transportation operations in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. "It is a good mix of transit and road projects."

Various elected officials, particularly those representing the San Gabriel Valley, have complained, however, that their regions might not get their fair share of projects from the sales tax increase, and they want assurances that a Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Claremont would be funded immediately.

In particular, they want the board to give the Gold Line $80 million now so they can begin seeking more than $300 million in federal money. The board declined to do so Thursday.

"We've never been a priority for the MTA," said Habib Balian, chief executive of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.

Villaraigosa said that Gold Line proponents shouldn't worry and that the extension would be one of the first lines built, along with the Expo Line, which will run from downtown to USC to Culver City.

The mayor was ebullient after the 9-2 vote in favor of the measure.

"I worked very hard for those nine votes," he said. "I think it's indicative of the desperation that those who use our public transportation systems and highways feel."

To head off potential opposition, Villaraigosa persuaded board members to use sales tax money to push back to 2010 an MTA fare increase scheduled for 2009. The deal would also freeze fares for seniors, students, the disabled and Medicare users for five years.

Nevertheless, officials of the Bus Riders Union, an advocacy group, vowed to oppose the sales tax increase because they said it would funnel too much money to rail and not enough to buses, the backbone of the county's transit system.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Gloria Molina said she could not support the sales tax because she believed the list of projects was thrown together quickly and was not fair to some parts of the county.