Breaking news: Hearing on bill for mass transit sales tax in L.A. County is delayed

Things are getting interesting again regarding the proposal to ask L.A. County voters in November to approve a half-cent sales tax increase to fund mass transit and road projects.

Two pieces of legislation are needed to make this possible. An Assembly bill, AB 2321, must be approved by the Legislature that allows Metro to go forward with the sales tax. And, the Metro board at their meeting later this month, must approve an ordinance that allows the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to put the sales tax on the ballot.

I just got off the phone with the state Senate Appropriations Committee. The hearing on AB 2321 won't happen until Aug. 4. It was expected this Monday. Metro spokesman Marc Littman confirmed the delay.

What does this mean?

In short, the Metro board is expected to vote on a sales tax ordinance in late July BEFORE they even know if the Legislature is going to allow them to take it to voters in November. The Legislature, I'm told by one source, has until November to vote on AB 2321. That needs to be verified.

In other words -- and this is spectacularly unreal -- the sales tax could end up printed on the ballot (the deadline to get it to the L.A. County registrar is Aug. 8), but not codified into state law. So even though it's on the ballot, it wouldn't really be on the ballot.

And why is a big vote on mass transit in Los Angeles County turning into such a last-minute affair?

1. As an agency, Metro didn't begin pushing the proposal until late in 2007, meaning they had less than a year to round up support for something sure to be controversial.

2. Local and state officials are fighting over the allocation of the expected revenues. In particular, officials from the San Gabriel Valley and the South Bay have claimed they aren't getting their fair sure, saying too much money will be spent on Westside projects.

Metro may soon be releasing documents to back up their spending plan. More later.

-- Steve Hymon

Comments

[Cyling in Hollywood]

I think the real ? is -- if we don't approve this sales tax, what is our Plan B for getting people around LA County with gas at $5 a gallon?