(July 24, 2008) -- Long Beach Councilwoman (and Dem Assembly candidate) Bonnie Lowenthal will be among the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members [regionwide politicians and appointees] expected to vote in the coming hours on whether L.A. County voters should raise the County's sales tax by a half cent to 8.75% (tying it for the highest sales tax County statewide) for MTA-sought transportation projects.
MTA management has revised the proposal following an MTA Board hearing last month -- at which Councilwoman Lowenthal voted "no" on the proposal, reflecting then-opposition by the governing board of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments (Gateway COG), which took the schizophrenic position that it was "categorically opposed to any Countywide sales tax increase; however, should one be placed on the ballot and passed" it wanted specific enumerated projects funded (including downtown LB ramps, Shoemaker/Anaheim/PCH).
Vice Mayor Lowenthal told the MTA board at that time that Gateway COG members felt that SE L.A. County reps felt they weren't getting their fair share of projects...and depending on what happens in the next thirty days (in terms of projects funded by the tax), she might vote in favor of the sales tax hike at the next MTA Board meeting in late July.
Vice Mayor Lowenthal said that during the next thirty days, "there's an opportunity to refine this list [of proposed tax-funded projects]. While today my vote is "no," I'm going to be looking very carefully at what happens over the next thirty days and speak with the members of the COG again."
Thirty days later, the MTA proposal includes a revised "expenditure plan" (projects spread across L.A. County to gain local political support...and required under now-pending Sacramento legislation (AB 2321) that must become law in its present form to allow MTA to pursue the new sales tax hike). MTA's revised "expenditure plan" includes what the agency calls "I-710 South and/or Early Action Projects," described in agency text as:
Improve congestion, safety and air quality by upgrading the freeway to modem design standards and improving truck and traffic flows between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the SR-60 freeway. Also to be considered are upgrades to the 1-710 Freeway between Pacific Coast Highway and downtown Long Beach. Improvements will include repavements, landscaping, lighting and median upgrades. It is assumed that partial funding by fees and public/private partnerships will be part ofthe project funding plan.
The sales tax hike could be nixed if Sacramento makes any substatial changes to AB 2321 after MTA's Board adopts the sales tax proposal.
If placed on the November 2008 ballot (requires a subsequent vote by a majority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors) the MTA sales tax hike would require 2/3 voter approval Countywide
On July 22, Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal was among eight LB Councilmembers (Schipske dissenting) who voted to put on the LB ballot a City Hall management/Mayoral plan to ask LB property owners to pay a property parcel tax to fund a $600+ million debt bond for infrastructure categories -- with no prior public hearings or Council consensus on the tax plan or what the specific projects would be, where they'd be or when they'd be done.
LB (and Lakewood & Signal Hill) voters will also face a ballot measure seeking a $1.2 billion property tax debt placed on the ballot by the LBUSD Board of Education (4-0, Ellis absent) seeking an assessment of $60/year for each $100,000 of assessed valuation to fund school-related construction projects. That measure requires 55% voter approval.
Meanwhile, Sacramento lawmakers are reportedly considering (no vote yet) on increasing the state sales tax and/or expanding the sales tax to "services" to bridge the gap between their spending and current revenue.
And as previously reported by LBReport.com, LB residential and business electricity users may see increases now estimated at roughly 30% in their bills if the CA Public Utility Commission approves a rate increase sought by Southern CA Edison, which the utility had expected might be about 17.5% but has ballooned with the increased cost of natural gas used to fuel the utility's power plants.
