Sales Tax Hike OKd for November Vote : Transit: New joint government board approves the ballot measure. It would add half a cent to help fund the county’s rail system and other transportation.

A sales tax increase measure to generate $400 million per year to help keep Los Angeles County’s proposed 150-mile rail system and other transit programs on track was placed on the November ballot Wednesday by local elected officials gathered at a historic transportation session.

If approved, the measure would raise the current 6 1/2% sales tax to 7%. Consumers would pay more than $400 million annually in added taxes to build and operate the new rail system, maintain bus service and make street improvements.

Mayor Tom Bradley, who is pushing the measure, said it will ensure that the money-short, $5-billion rail construction program will reach the suburban neighborhoods of Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay. “There is not enough money. This is the only way we can build” the entire system, Bradley said.

The action came at a meeting in which Bradley, the five county supervisors and other elected officials sat for the first time as the joint governing board of two large, often warring transportation agencies--the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The session, required by a new state law, was the first step toward ending the running bureaucratic turf battles between the agencies that critics charge have hurt the region’s ability to deal with growing traffic congestion problems. The state law, authored by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City) requires the prominent political leaders to meet four times a year as a joint transportation board and move gradually toward consolidating the agencies.

As the meeting opened, Katz urged the officials to “put the finger-pointing and sparring behind us and provide Los Angeles with a 21st-Century transportation system.”

Before Katz was out the door, however, the old rivalry erupted in full flower. The two sides squabbled over misdirected agendas and procedures for conducting the meetings. Then Supervisor Michael Antonovich, an RTD critic, unsuccessfully tried to oust RTD General Manager Alan Pegg and put Transportation Commission chief Neil Peterson in charge of both agencies.

“I can’t control the personalities,” groaned Katz as he departed.

The sales tax increase measure would be in addition to the more than $400 million in sales taxes already paid by county consumers under a half-cent levy for transit approved in 1980.

The tax hike reflects the growing costs of both building and operating the county’s new rail system, the first leg of which opened last month between Long Beach and Los Angeles. The construction program currently is $300 million short of its needs for the next 10 years.

In fact, the current $24 million annual operating cost of the new Long Beach Blue Line is being funded temporarily from construction accounts, transportation officials said.

The sales tax measure squeaked onto the ballot by a 6-5 vote. The leading opponent of the measure, Supervisor Pete Schabarum, provided the swing vote. Schabarum, who will author the argument against the measure, said he hopes the transit tax fails and helps drag down several other proposed tax hikes.

“(I’m) trying to present a menu of tax increases so substantial that they are rejected in their entirety,” he said.

Besides the transit tax, county voters in November will be faced with another sales tax increase for jail construction, a state sales tax increase for anti-crime programs and a county property tax increase to fund new recreation and cultural facilities.

The transit measure and the county-sponsored jail construction measure will be competing for the last half-cent of local sales tax permitted under current state law.

As a compromise, the commission agreed to seek new state legislation that would allow the jail and transit systems to split the sales tax revenue if both are approved.