Jenny Oropeza is a by all accounts a fairly good progressive Senator, but she’s dead wrong on her threat to shut down the proposed ballot measure raising the LA city sales tax by a 1/2 cent to pay for transit projects, because her pet project won’t get funded.
State Sen. Jenny Oropeza put it in no uncertain terms when I spoke to her late this Friday afternoon: she is prepared to kill the bill that would allow a half-cent sales tax increase to go on the November ballot in Los Angeles County to pay for road and transit projects.
“I said in order for the bill to pass the Senate, it is going to have to contain the Green Line extension,” Oropeza, (D-Long Beach), told me. “They” – Los Angeles County transportation officials – “understood that. They are playing a game of chicken and blaming the Legislature. I am praying to God they do the right thing. I don’t want to see this thing go down either.”
I asked her if she was prepared to try to kill the bill – and any chance of a vote in November. Oropeza firmly answered: “Yes I am.”
The most bizarre thing about this is that the Green Line extension is in the proposed ballot language. But she wants more of a guarantee. So she’s prepared to undermine the entire set of transit projects – which would improve air quality, lower demand for gas, expand transit, enhance the reputation of transit as successful so that future projects can be built, reduce greenhouse gas emisssions, improve quality of life, etc. – because of silly parochialism.
I don’t want to make it look like this is limited to Oropeza. Some of our favorite lawmakers – State Sen. Gil Cedillo, Rep. Hilda Solis – have expressed opposition to the project, for largely the same reasons – that not enough of the transit projects in the proposal go specifically to their districts. But on this one, I have to agree with Mayor Villaraigosa.
“The problem in Sacramento is that there are some who want to engage in the pork barrel politics of asking for even more money than has been distributed for their pet projects,” Villaraigosa added later […] using several maps and visuals, the mayor also said the sales tax revenues would be spent on an equitable basis when factors such as employment density and need are taken into consideration. “On the Westside, there are four times as many jobs than there are homes and people.”
The traffic crisis in Southern California is not going to be solved overnight. There are specific need areas which are literally impossible to manage by car right now and are completely underserved by transit. A successful show of support for transit now will only improve prospects for better transit possibilities in the future. Which projects ought to be included or delayed is an important decision, but I frankly don’t trust legislators with their own agendas to make it. And almost every one of them is playing this backwards-thinking, anti-progressive, reductionist parochial game where they judge the dollars their district will get against what another district will get and scream bloody murder if they come up a dollar short. That’s maddening, especially considering that if the sales tax is dropped from the ballot, nobody gets any funding.
Oropeza responded to the Mayor dismissively, taking objection to the characterization of “porkbarrel politics” and leaving the outcome unclear on AB2321, the vote in the legislature that would allow the sales tax hike to go to the November ballot. The Senate Appropriations Committee vote is scheduled for today, and nobody really knows what the outcome will be. Labor, which appears to be on board with the increase (at least the building and construction portions of the coalition), will be watching Oropeza and Cedillo’s votes very closely today.
UPDATE: The LA County Board of Supervisors just voted to put the sales tax on the ballot, and ALSO voted to officially oppose the increase. Don Knabe switched his vote to allow the initiative to be a part of the regular election but maintained his position against the tax. Meanwhile the vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee has been delayed to Thursday.