Editorial: Villaraigosa fails SoCal on transportation measure
We can't help but smile at the recent story suggesting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got snubbed at the Democratic National Convention, partly because Obama's team put him in the same category as John Edwards: Both men recently cheated on their wives and the news erupted in public scandals.
We don't have much sympathy for the L.A. mayor. In fact, he hardly fits the profile of party uniter, a key goal in Denver. Villaraigosa could not unify the Metropolitan Transportation Agency's support for regional mass transit and bus projects. He helped shoot down funding for the San Gabriel Valley's Gold Line Foothill Extension to Montclair, a light rail line that already connects downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena. This was funding the MTA has but refused to grant. A move that cost the line $324 million in federal funds as well.
He and his cronies are instead looking to raise taxes on county residents. Again, not the kind of message Obama wanted front and center.
Even if the MTA's one-half cent sales tax measure for light-rail, buses and other transportation projects gets out of the Legislature as expected, there's no guarantee it will be signed by the governor and make it on the November ballot.
So, even with the funding measure up in the air, we'd like to point out the dark storm clouds chasing it, in case it does require your vote.
The measure continues to lose support. Three of the five county supervisors don't support it: Gloria Molina, Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich. It's no coincidence that all three supervisor's districts contain parts of the San Gabriel Valley or Whittier region.
None of them supported Villaraigosa's efforts, a measure he had written by stooge Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles. Also against it are the Gold Line Phase II Joint Powers Authority, which includes cities of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona and Claremont. MTA board member from Duarte, Councilman John Fasana, is also opposed.
He said it would not dole out monies in a fair and equitable manner to the San Gabriel Valley. He and others believe the city of Los Angeles would end up getting more money than any other region - despite the fact that outlying areas account for more of the region's population - so L.A. could build a "Subway to the Sea," a project that has not been deemed feasible. Fasana, Knabe and Antonovich are joined by Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian and Pomona City Councilman George Hunter in the ballot argument against the measure.
Knabe has expressed concerns that the voting public, already burdened by higher energy prices, food prices and plunging home values, may not support higher taxes. While only a half cent, the sales tax, now at 8.25 percent, could go to 9.75 percent if the governor and the Legislature approve a one-cent hike to help balance the state's budget.
While Villaraigosa tried to give a speech over the clatter of breakfast dishes at the Denver convention hall, the L.A. Times reported, few listened.
And fewer Southland leaders are listening to the L.A. Mayor and the L.A.-based supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. They view them and their tax as unfair and mostly based on a desire to build expensive underground subways on the Westside.
Perhaps it is best for our congressional leaders to take over. Reps David Dreier, R-San Dimas, Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, Hilda Solis, D-El Monte and Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk recently sat down and expressed support for the Gold Line Foothill Extension in a unique, bipartisan declaration - click here to view release.
They said the 24-mile extension should receive federal dollars and a local match of 20 percent. That the extension would save 1.5 million gallons of gasoline a year and remove 4 million tons of carbon monoxide from the air. That the extension would immediately add 2,000 construction jobs and add 262,000 jobs in the Foothill corridor by 2035.
Now that's something worth listening to.
