The Los Angeles County registrar finished counting ballots on Friday, and here's the final line score for Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase for transportation projects -- including the start of the Westside subway extension -- in Los Angeles County:
Yes: 2,039,214 votes, 67.93%
No: 962,569 votes, 32.07%
Measure R needed two-thirds votes to pass, meaning it won by a raw vote total of about 37,000 votes. The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to declare the results official at its meeting on Tuesday.
Measure R was the seventh countywide transportation bond or tax to go to voters in Los Angeles County since 1968. Of those, Measure R received the highest percentage of the vote and the most votes. The list, courtesy of Matthew Barrett at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's library:
1968: Rapid Transit Bond, 62 rail miles, 44.88% yes, 50.01% no. FAILED
1974: One-cent sales tax in perpetuity, 46.39% yes, 50.01% no. FAILED
1976: 1/2-cent sales tax for 232 miles of rail construction, 40.64% yes, 50.01% no. FAILED
1976: 1/2-cent sales tax in perpetuity, 39.64% yes, 50.01% no. FAILED
1980: 1/2-cent sales tax in perpetuity, 54.33% yes, 50.01% no. PASSED
1990: 1/2-cent sales tax in perpetuity, 50.44% yes, 50.01% no. PASSED
2008: 1/2-cent sales tax for 30 years, 67.93% yes, 32.07% no. PASSED
If you were a proponent of Measure R and want to know which politicians worked this issue, here's a short list -- all people we've mentioned before on this blog:
-- Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles). Feuer took an old state bill from 2004 that would have authorized a sales tax back then and revamped it for 2008 and helped navigate the often tricky currents of the Legislature. He also stumped hard for it in recent weeks on both the airwaves and with community groups.
-- MTA and Metrolink board member Richard Katz. He did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, meaning he negotiated with a lot of other concerned pols who wanted to see their projects included in Measure R.
-- County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. He wrote the countywide measure in 1998 that banned sales tax money from the 1980 and 1990 elections from being used for subway tunneling, saying that the subway was consuming too much resources. But he got behind the subway extension this time around, saying that with a new pot of money the project could become a reality.
-- And, finally, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. When trying to oust James K. Hahn from office in 2005, Villaraigosa campaigned on building the subway to the sea -- and at times was mocked by the Hahn campaign for making such a promise. Upon taking office, he commissioned a study to show tunneling in methane gas-prone areas was safe, used that study to convince Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) to repeal the congressional ban on subway tunneling in those areas and then, as an MTA board member, voted to launch the ongoing alternatives analysis to see if a subway is needed and what route it might take.
Measure R was the fourth step and could provide the subway up to $4.1 billion. Measure R proponents say that should get the train from its terminus at Wilshire and Western to Westwood.
In addition, Villaraigosa ran the Measure R campaign -- meaning he did a lot of the fund-raising -- and he also put his longtime political strategist Ace Smith in charge of a campaign. "When he ran for mayor, everyone told us that it" -- the subway -- "was not doable," Smith told me on Monday. "But the guy did it."
Interestingly, the subway was not mentioned per se in Villaraigosa's inaugural speech in July 2005 -- a speech that carried a theme of dreaming big:
I’d like to now turn to another matter that may not sound like the stuff of dreams, but is critical if we are to improve the quality of life of our city’s residents. And that’s traffic.
The time we spend stuck in traffic is time we do not spend helping our kids with their homework or being productive at work.
So, Los Angeles, join me in fighting for the investment in public transportation that is the hallmark of any great city. Join me in implementing the common sense traffic plans that have been bottlenecked for too long. Join me in transforming Los Angeles into a city that connects our communities and brings us all closer together.
All that said, the hard work is likely just beginning. Measure R is expected to bring in as much as $40 billion over the next three decades for a variety of transit and road projects. It also freezes MTA fares for everyone until mid-2010 (and some longer) and will return millions of dollars to cities in the county to spend on transportation projects.
What remains to be seen is whether the Measure R transit projects are built in a first-class way that provides a good alternative to driving and whether the road projects can help erase some of the longstanding tie-ups that cause congestion. It's one thing to talk about transportation, it's another to pick up the shovel and to start digging.
-- Steve Hymon
