Senate Committee Passes Ammended Sales Tax Measure

The Bottleneck Blog reports that the logjam holding up A.B. 2321 was broken earlier today when the Committee moved an amended motion to the Senate floor.  Because the amendments don’t change the list of funded projects, the measure won’t require a new vote by the Metro Board of Directors.  It seems Metro’s sales tax measure is one step closer to being on this November’s ballot.  Sort of.

Because of language changes at the last minute needed to win the approval of Senator Jenny Oropeza, a Senator and member of the Appropriations Committee who has long pushed for a Green Line extension to LAX, the bill has to be approved by the Senate and go back to the Assembly before going to the Governor’s desk.  It seems nothing can be simple with this sales tax plan.

Nevertheless, both A.B. 2321 Author Mike Feuer and Oropeza seem content with the compromise so let’s enjoy this moment of political harmony.  After all, even if everything goes smoothly in Sacramento, the measure still needs the support of 2/3’s of participating voters on election day.  With opposition promised in both San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley, we still have a long way to go.