State budget could cut MTA funding

Just a quick update on the state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will veto: Metro (also known as the MTA) spokesman Marc Littman says the budget would cut funding for the agency, the largest in the Southland, by $89 million and there would be an additional $13.8 million in cuts to transportation programs in the rest of the county.

I don't have information on cuts to the other counties in Southern California. If you work for one of the other agencies and you get the numbers, please send them over.

-- Steve Hymon

Comments

[M. Antaya]

Who gets all these tax dollars from our gas tax? Are we as Angelinos getting our Fair share? Los Angeles is the most populated city in the the state. We have the highest percentage of cars, the highest average miles driven. We contribute the most in gas taxes to the state if not the entire nation. But what percentage do we get back to help build our desperately needed transportation infrastructure? Why should Angelinos carry the burden of the entire state? And now Sacramento wants to take our hard earned gas tax dollars and divert it to balancing the State budget? Maybe splitting the state into two jurisdictions isn't a bad idea after all. Sacramento has been ripping off LA for far too long! Hey Sacramento! Where's our piece of the pie? We bought the damn thing. Did you have to eat it all!

[Dana Gabbard]

"so I was somewhat relieved when the now to-be-vetoed budget was passed without any new taxes" Gregory this phony budget included plan to increase payroll withholding--that's right, take more money out of our paycheck that the state would hold to creat an appaerance of having a balanced budget until the excess is refunded come tax time--a no interest loan from every worker in the state. This what being a fiscally prudent conservative leads to? I'll take vanilla!

Here is a link to an excellent Legislative Analyst report from a year or so ago that provides an overview of how we fund transportation in California: http://lao.ca.gov/2007/ca_travels/ca_travels_012607.aspx

[Kymberleigh Richards]

It is the gasoline taxes, and the sales taxes collected on gasoline sales, that are being diverted to the state's General Fund.

That is why we are falling farther and farther behind on transportation improvements, and why Measure R is needed. Not to mention that part of the sales taxes from Measure R go toward the cost of operating transit service, which gasoline taxes cannot fund, per our state's Constitution.

And best of all, Measure R sales taxes cannot be raided by the state, because they are local taxes.

Feel better now?

[Gregory]

Generally, I find new state taxes abhorrent and counter-productive - they only encourage government inefficiencies, while prodding investors to flee our state - so I was somewhat relieved when the now to-be-vetoed budget was passed without any new taxes. But the fact that cutting transportation is up for grabs makes me think aloud: what was the last time our gasoline tax was raised? and is that tax put into the general fund, or is it dedicated to transportation projects only - as it should be?

[Kymberleigh Richards]

"Lacking any foresight"?

It's hard to make investments in infrastructure when the state keeps diverting transportation funding to balance its spending in other areas.

Do a little homework before you post next time, please.

(Also: Metrolink and MTA are not the same agency.)

[Stephen]

Again, completely lacking any foresight of investing in our transit infrastructure. Did we not learn anything from the preventable Metrolink collisions in Chatsworth and Placentia?