Supervisors vote against putting sales tax on ballot

 

 

SUPERVISOR MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH     Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 5th District     869 Hahn Hall of Administration ~ 500 West Temple Street ~ Room 869     Los Angeles, CA 90012                                          www.antonovich.com

       

 

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:  Tony Bell, Communications Deputy    Office:  (213) 974-5555   Cell: (213) 215-5176    E-mail:  tbell@bos.lacounty.gov

 

 

August 5, 2008                                                                                               For Immediate Release

 

BOARD VOTES AGAINST  

MTA'S ½ CENT SALES TAX INCREASE

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY – On a 2-2-1 vote, the Board of Supervisors denied the placing of the MTA’s ½ cent sales tax on the county’s November ballot.  A motion to reconsider the item was defeated 3-2 with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich voting no along with Supervisors Molina and Knabe. 

 

"Los Angeles County’s regional congestion crisis requires a regional solution – not a political pork barrel rip-off,” said Antonovich.  “Forcing County taxpayers to fund the subway-to-the-sea extravagance instead of their own regional needs is wrong.  The sales tax measure was an ill-conceived rush job that was forced through the MTA by the City of Los Angeles to avoid obtaining regional collaboration for the other 87 cities and unincorporated communities.” 

 

“This sales tax proposal is a bad deal for regional transportation -- especially for the people living in the San Gabriel, San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys and the Gateway Cities,” he said.  “It does not include extra funding for areas that will grow the most over the next 30 years, nor does it fairly share the billions in federal and state funding that will be leveraged from the sales tax.  It ignores public transit needs of the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys, fails to complete the Gold Line to Claremont and deprives the San Fernando Valley of 2/3 of its fair share of funding.  The MTA needs to return to the drawing board to develop a regional transportation sales tax measure that has regional equity and consensus.”

 

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