Assembly Democrats Revive Transit Bill

Assembly Democrats, as expected, revived legislation Wednesday to protect bus workers in case new transit zones, including one proposed for the Valley, are spun off from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The action came in response to a move by Republicans to stall the controversial bill.

The legislation--supported by organized labor and the Legislature’s Democratic leaders and opposed by Republicans and San Fernando Valley business groups--would force new transit zones to pay bus workers according to existing contracts between the MTA and labor unions. It would also ensure that future deals are negotiated by public agencies, not private management companies.

Republicans blocked the original bill, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), last week.

Democrats on Wednesday amended another piece of legislation to include the transit-zone stipulation. The Appropriations Committee approved the bill and sent it to the full Assembly. It has already been passed by the Senate.

Opponents have portrayed the legislation as an attempt to block the breakup of the MTA--part of a larger movement in Los Angeles to dismantle what some see as monolithic, ineffective bureaucracies such as the city government and the school district.

They contend that it would be impossible to make transit zones more efficient than the MTA if they were saddled with the larger agency’s union deals. MTA guidelines currently state that transit zones should only be formed if they can be shown to operate 15% more cheaply than the MTA.

Supporters say they are not trying to stop the spinoff of MTA services into locally controlled zones, but simply want to ensure that any cost savings achieved by the zones does not come by gutting workers’ salaries and pensions. Foothill Transit, which provides bus service in parts of the San Gabriel Valley and is considered a model for a Valley transit zone, pays workers less than the MTA.

To counter the argument that transferring the labor contracts would stop new transit zones from meeting the MTA’s cost-savings requirement, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) added language to the bill that nullifies the requirement.

But opponents contend that only makes matters worse, because it removes any built-in incentive to try cheaper approaches to providing bus service.