Transit Advocacy

Supervisors Put Sales Tax on Regular Ballot, But Get Their Shots In

The Bottleneck Blog is reporting that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to place Metro's proposed sales tax on the fall ballot with the rest of the elections. Just to make clear that placing the measure on the ballot has to do with the millions of dollars it would cost the county to run a "separate" election, held on the same day as the presidential election, Supervisors also voted to formally oppose the sales tax measure.

By Damien Newton

2:37 PM PDT on August 12, 2008

The Bottleneck Blog is reporting that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to place Metro’s proposed sales tax on the fall ballot with the rest of the elections. Just to make clear that placing the measure on the ballot has to do with the millions of dollars it would cost the county to run a “separate” election, held on the same day as the presidential election, Supervisors also voted to formally oppose the sales tax measure.

The vote count on both actions was 3-2 with Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Yvonne Burke supporting the proposal, Gloria Molina and Mike Antonovich opposing the proposal and Don Knabe providing the swing vote. Knabe originally voted against placing the proposal on the ballot, twice, but had a change of heart when he realized his vote would do little except confuse voters and cost the county an additional $10 million.

Of course, the State Senate and Governor still have to approve the proposal before it can be placed in the final ballot. The Senate Appropriations Committee has put off a vote for over a week and is now scheduled to vote on Thursday.