LOCAL: Getting Moving on Transit : Despite all the fiscal conservatism, two crucial sales-tax measures do well

Southern California voters, seeking relief from their worsening commuting woes, look to have passed two local measures, which will mean paying a little more in sales tax inorder to fund a regional mass transit system. The long-term benefits from investing in the badly needed transit system will mean less traffic congestion and air pollution foreveryone.

The sole holdouts were voters in Ventura, who rejected a measure that would have funded the county’s share of a rail transit project. That was shortsighted. Ventura County residents and commuters could avoid facing future traffic nightmares, at less cost, by working on the transit project now.

Measure C in Los Angeles County and Measure M in Orange County would put the financial infrastructure in place to build a regional transit system, which will eventually stretch over a six-county area. The $400 million to be raised annually by the half-cent sales tax hike in Los Angeles County will mean three rail commuter lines--from Santa Clarita, Moorpark and San Bernardino, all going to downtown Los Angeles--will be in place within two years.

The transit tax translates into tangible benefits. It will provide the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission with the money to buy locomotives and cars and to build stations. Now the light-rail Blue Line, which runs from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles, will be extended to Pasadena.

Meanwhile in Orange County, voters finally approved--after three tries--Measure M, a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. M also provides the necessary funds to buy and develop the rights of way to rail lines that will connect Los Angeles and Orange counties. That will provide the critical link in commuter rail service from the south.

The measures in Los Angeles and Orange counties are important to the Inland Empire, too. Riverside, which passed a transit sales tax in 1988, and San Bernardino, which did so in 1989, have funds to plug into the transit system. San Diego, which also has a transit tax, connects via Amtrak trains. Ventura now is the only one of the six counties which lacks resources. That means the rail line that is to run from downtown Los Angeles to Moorpark in Ventura may stop short, at the border between the two counties.

Ventura should take a cue from its more urban neighbors: Sitting in traffic is no fun--and is a lot more costly than a slight increase in the sales tax.