You need to tell the average person who drives from their home in the suburbs the average 25-30 minutes to their job in the suburbs why they should vote for the measure. Throwing 20% or less at roads is not going to do it. Baca tried to scare people with the specter of criminals coming into middle class neighborhoods, when talk radio hammered the fact that most of the money was going into the gang-infested areas that many middle class people would just write off anyway. Traffic is the same way. The majority of Angelenos do not commute to one of the big centers which will be served by rail, like Century City, Pasadena, Downtown, LAX/El Segundo, etc. Many of them drive to South Coast Metro, or Santa Clarita, or work in the factories and warehouses along the Alameda Corridor, or in one-off government buildings in Norwalk, Alhambra, Industry, Marina Del Rey, etc. What’s in it for them? With the growth of the service industry, and a lot more 24 hour activities, a lot more people these days don’t work 9-5. They might take transit on the weekends, because weekend congestion is greater. But is it worth one of the highest sales taxes in the Country? And unlike some other high tax areas, California’s income tax isn’t exactly low or nonexistent either.

But local electeds would never allow Metro to exist without being under their thumb. The RTD and LACTC Boards were composed mostly of the appointees of various officials. The old MTA (1958-1962) had a Board appointed by the Governor. The late Pat Moser complained to me that once Governor Pat Brown appointed a campaign contributor who owned parking lots to it.

When the ongoing RTD/LACTC feud forced the creation of Metro via a merger in 1993 the local politicians realized they had ruined the credibility of appointees by allowing the feud to happen so they said to the legislature “Let us sit on tha Board ourself”. All the key power blocks ended up on the Metro Board (County Supervisors, Mayor of L.A., other cities). Basically each composes 1/3 of the Board, so it is balanced to prevent any block from dominating Metro policy making and spending.

Nearly all transit agency boards in California are made up of electeds. The sole exceptions are BART and AC Transit in the bay area, whose Boards are directly elected. I don’t see that happening here unless there is some horrible scandal. That is just the political reality.

Alan Weeks

Amazing how things have changed. I remember when transportation was a political backwater, goods movement an obscure phrase, etc. For the BRU is must be horrifying to no longer monopolize the issue. Other voices and perspectives are coming to the fore. I so far see no substantial opposition to the tax.