LA County Supervisor Changes Vote on Transportation Sales Tax

According to the LA Times bottleneck blogger Stevre Hymon, the sales tax for LA County is half way to the ballot:

A press release from L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe just popped up in my email basket. It's a keeper and it's below.

What this means is that if the sales tax increase goes to the ballot, it will be on the general ballot. But it's not sure thing it will be on the ballot because a state bill that is needed to authorize such an election is stuck in the State Senate while members haggle over what projects are included in the bill.

Nonetheless, this is a remarkable turn of events. According to the release, Knabe changed his mind after learning that having the sales tax on a separate ballot would cost the county an additional $10.3 million. Officials at the Supervisors' meeting on Tuesday, if my notes are correct, estimated the cost to be $2- to $3-million more.

California Budget Stalemate Continues

As of today, California's budget is 39 days late and the political situation seems to be getting worse.

Below are a list of what has happened:

• The Budget's Constitutional Deadline is June 15
• The State's fiscal year begins July 1 (The state is operating without a budget)
  
• The Governor laid off 10,000 part time workers.
  
• The Governor reduced many state workers compensation to the Federal minimum wage, but not all. More on this in the Capitol Report.
  
• State Controller John Chiang refuses to implement the Governor's Executive order regarding reducing state workers wages. He also says that this is impossible because of outdated computers.
  
• The Governor is refusing to sign any bill into law until a budget is sign (thus vetoing the bill) SacBee Article, SF Gate Article
  
• The Governor proposed a temporary (three year) one cent increase in the sales tax
  
• The Democrats in the Legislature proposed $9 billion in tax increases and a budget
  
• The Republicans in the Legislature have proposed a spending cap and not a budget, and accuse the Democrats of stalling.
  

Ok that is the chronology to date. I have a feeling this is just going to get more "interesting". Unfortunately, the Republican Minority may be looking at facilitating a crisis as a way to make electoral gains in November.

Oakland Port to Eliminate 100 Jobs

I guess this is a sign of the times. Earlier this year I posted a blog entry about the slowing transportation industry. That was a general article but now the details of the fallout are starting to emerge. The SF Gate reported today that the Port of Oakland is cutting 100 jobs, many of them in the engineering section.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

The Port of Oakland is cutting 100 jobs, representing about 15 percent of all positions, in its biggest reduction in force in recent memory.

The cuts, to take effect Aug. 29, affect 62 filled positions and 38 that were vacant because of a partial hiring freeze.

"We've had a tremendous upset in the aviation industry which has impacted our airport operations," said port spokeswoman Libby Schaaf. "Consumer spending is down; the dollar is weak, that has also really impacted imports at the seaport. It's been a prudent decision to adjust to the economic realities."

Port revenue is growing more slowly than anticipated; at the same time, debt payments are increasing for bonds that paid for past capital improvements.

Most of the reductions will be made by reining in the port's capital improvement program, such as suspending plans to build a third terminal at Oakland International Airport. The airport soon will have lost six carriers this year as Aloha, ATA and Skybus all went bankrupt and Continental, American and Taca (an El Salvador airline) have ceased or plan to cease operations there shortly.

L.A. County Sales Tax Hike for Transit Hits Roadblock

Turns out that the transportation sales effort will have to take a detour if it is going to the voters in November. The LA County Board of Supervisors killed the effort to get the sales tax measure on November's general election ballot. The bill that authorizes the tax measure must still be passed by the legislature. But this bill may be in trouble as well. After this happens then they would need to convince 67.7 percent of voters to approve the measure. If three of the five supervisors will not support the measure it is hard to see that a strong enough of a coalition will form in order to get the required votes.

Here are some of the details as reported in the LA Times:

Illustrating how politically difficult it is to tackle traffic in Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors failed Tuesday to back a proposed half-cent sales tax increase that could raise up to $40 billion for roads and mass transit.

The supervisors' surprising inability to muster a simple majority to place the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot does not kill the tax effort, but makes it more complicated and perhaps more costly.

If the Legislature gives its blessing, county election officials would create a separate "conditional" ballot that general election voters would also consider. Officials said the cost of a second ballot could be as much as $3 million.

On Thursday, a key committee of state lawmakers is scheduled to take up a bill that would authorize a sales tax election.

It is a real shame that they can not come to consensus. LA county is so large but, interconnected with commuters going from one side to the other. As most of my family lives there it makes me personally sad that they could not come to a solution to put before the voters.

Assemblywoman Nicole Parra Links Budget Vote to Water Bond

Unless you are living under a rock in California you are aware of the budget standoff. It appears as though is only going to get closer to a crisis.

Part of California's budget problems come from the two thirds requirement to pass a budget. Maybe it has been around too long. It gives a lot of power to parties and interests that want to obstruct the process.

One example of this is coming from term limited legislator, Nicole Parra (D-Bakersfield), according to the Fresno Bee is tying her support for the budget with a water bond for the Central Valley.

Assembly Member Nicole Parra could once again be in some trouble with fellow Democrats -- this time over a suggestion that she won't vote for the state budget unless lawmakers approve a water bond.

In a recent letter to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Parra issues what appears to be a stark ultimatum:

"I simply cannot support a budget without a solution to the Central Valley's water supply," the Hanford lawmaker said in a July 29 letter obtained by The Bee. "A vote on a budget that adequately reflects our state's priorities is only half honest, unless we are simultaneously addressing the issue of water supply."

She "respectfully" asks in the letter that the Assembly "place a water bond on the November ballot."

Transportation Tax Drives into Opposition in the Valley

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Commission proposal to fund a half cent sales tax to fund billions of dollars of improvements is running into opposition in the northern section of the county. LA County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich opposes the measure because he says that there is not enough money to fund projects in his district.

From the LA Daily News:

Last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to put the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot in an effort to raise $30 billion to $40 billion over three decades for transportation projects across the traffic-choked Southland.

State legislators still need to pass a AB 2331 to give it the go-ahead, and two-thirds of voters would need to approve it, but already politicians representing the Valley and outlying suburbs contend not enough of the money has been designated for the area.

Home to about 17 percent of the county's 10 million residents, the Valley gets only 5 percent of the proposed sales-tax money.

One of the key selling points is providing a light rail solution to the "Sepulveda Pass", which connects the San Fernando Valley to the City of Los Angeles. I wonder if this is enough to sway Valley voters to support the project.

$ 7 Billion Los Angeles Unified School Bond Heads to Ballot

The LA Times posted an in depth article about the largest school bond ever proposed. Such a comprehensive solution is going to be very controversial. The Chair of the Oversight Committee was critical of the timing of the size of bond. District Officials however see this as a an opportunity to go to the voters for a large set of increases instead of every two or three years.

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to place a $7-billion bond on the November ballot. It would be the largest local school bond ever -- by far -- and would allow officials to tax property owners for building and repairing schools for the next 10 years.

From four previous bonds, the Los Angeles Unified School District already has enough money to allow every student to attend a neighborhood school on a traditional, two-semester schedule -- the main goal for those earlier measures.

This bond, by contrast, contains a wide-ranging wish list of possible expenditures that backers say would create state-of-the-art "small" schools with the potential to improve graduation rates and test scores.

The requested amount ballooned from $3.2 billion in recent days, allowing district officials to assuage some critics and constituencies with additional dollars and letting board members pad funds earmarked for their favored priorities, such as early childhood education centers.

It will be hard to know if LA voters will support this local bond as well as all of the other measures that will be on November's Ballot.