LOCAL ELECTIONS PROPOSITION C : Transit Sales Tax Hike in Uphill Fight Despite Major Railroad Gifts

Railroads that are selling several hundred miles of track to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission have donated $662,500 to the campaign for Proposition C, the half-cent sales tax measure on Tuesday’s ballot designed to help buy those rights of way.

Campaign statements filed by the Yes On Proposition C Committee show the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. contributed $587,000 in October, after it agreed to sell 175 miles of rights of way to the commission for $450 million.

The Santa Fe Pacific Corp., which is negotiating the sale of other rights of way to the commission, has donated $75,000 to the campaign, records show. Between them, the two railroads account for about two-thirds of the $1 million donated.

If it receives the simple majority needed to pass, Proposition C would raise $400 million a year to speed development of a 300-mile rail transit network linking five Southern California counties, proponents say. Part of the money would be used to pay for Southern Pacific and Santa Fe rights of way, transit officials said.

If the measure fails, the rights of way purchase will go forward but funding for other programs will suffer, officials said.

Billed as the “1990 Fast-Track Anti-Gridlock Transit Improvement Proposition,” the measure also would help pay for the conversion of transit buses to cleaner fuels, fund construction of more car pool diamond lanes and finance development of computer-linked traffic signals.

The measure--backed by the League of Women Voters, the Coalition for Clean Air, Mayor Tom Bradley and more than 100 other prominent individuals, organizations and government agencies--had been relatively free of controversy until this last week.

On Monday, the commission was accused of forcing its employees to campaign for the measure on county time, a charge officials denied, saying the workers volunteered. By mid-week, opponents had seized on campaign contributions by the railroads to attack the proposal.

Calling the commission’s purchase of the rights of way a “boondoggle,” Gerald A. Silver, president of the Home Owners of Encino, labeled the railroads’ campaign contributions a “sweetheart deal. . . . They donate $600,000 to the campaign to raise the half-cent tax so the county can turn around and buy the property.”

Silver, speaking for Opposition to Prop. C, a coalition of anti-tax groups, argued that the county does not need to raise more money for rail transit. It gets enough funds from the five-cent state gas tax and two rail bond issues that were passed by the voters in June, coalition members say.

The groups, whose supporters include county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, oppose projects like the Metro Rail subway linking downtown to North Hollywood.

Commission officials and a spokesman for Southern Pacific said the campaign contributions were in no way tied to the $450-million deal that the county and the railroad signed in mid-October. The 175 miles of rights of way will be purchased by the county whether the tax measure passes or not, they said.

“Our deal isn’t conditioned on passage of Prop. C,” said Robert Starzel, Southern Pacific Transportation Co. vice chairman. “We have been a major contributor because we believe the rail projects . . . (will help) untangle the transportation mess.”

Most transit experts agree that Southland traffic congestion has reached critical mass and any real solutions will be costly. However, they say Proposition C faces tough going at the polls Tuesday because voters will be confronted by a bewildering array of proposals.

There are 14 state bond propositions to raise money for new prisons, education, old-growth timberlands and other projects.

Proposition C backers say Southern California needs more money for transit plans and cannot make it on the statewide gas tax hike and transit bond issues approved last June.

“If we are going to improve the quality of life in Southern California, we must be very aggressive in our approach to tackling congestion problems,” said Neil Peterson, executive director of the transportation commission. “Proposition C will bring us tremendous benefits in dealing with that congestion.”

Not everyone agrees that the time is right for a new transit tax.

Ed Edelman, Transportation Commission chairman, argued strongly against putting Proposition C on the ballot this year. In his capacity as a Los Angeles County supervisor, Edelman is strongly committed to Proposition A, the half-cent sales tax measure to pay for building more county jails.

“To add a second sales tax to the county ballot was just too much,” said Joel Bellman, a spokesman for the supervisor. Once the commission voted to put the measure on the ballot, Edelman chose to remain neutral. “He can’t oppose (Prop C) but . . . he can’t endorse it,” Bellman said.

Proposition C backers say the $400 million a year raised by the measure would be spent as follows:

* $160 million to develop more light rail and commuter rail lines and build transit ways for buses and van pools.

* $100 million for computer-linked traffic signals and deployment of tow trucks to clear accidents.

* $80 million for transit equipment, street repairs and route improvements.

* $40 million for commuter rail park-and-ride lots and freeway bus stops.

* $20 million for transit security police and anti-graffiti efforts.

The county already has embarked on an ambitious plan to build a 300-mile rail network at a cost of about $5.5 billion. In addition to the new Los Angeles-Long Beach Blue Line and the Metro Rail subway now under construction, plans include three more light rail lines and inter-urban trains running east to San Bernardino, south to Orange County and north into the Santa Clarita Valley.

Without additional funding authorized by the new half-cent sales tax, the county commission will be hard-pressed to pay for the rail rights of way, upgrade the tracks, purchase the commuter rail cars and still fund all of the transit projects needed to alleviate congestion, Peterson said.