Letters: Money for Metro -- indefinitely

Re “An indefinite tax for transit?,” Editorial, June 22

The Times expresses reservations with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposal to remove the sunset provision of the Measure R sales tax increase. We at Move LA believe that the public’s interest is best served if Metro asks voters to extend Measure R until voters themselves choose to end it.

This is exactly what Metro did when it asked voters to approve two previous half-cent sales tax measures, Proposition A in 1980 and Proposition C in 1990, neither of which have arbitrary sunset provisions. Metro has these measures as reliable revenue streams to support the current transit system.

Reliable, adequate revenue enables better long-term planning, especially when you must meet the needs of a growing population. Otherwise, Metro would simply lurch from crisis to crisis hoping for an extraordinary two-thirds voter approval for new taxes rather than being able to anticipate and meet the challenges of growth.

Denny Zane

Los Angeles

The writer is executive director of Move LA.

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