Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Transportation Funding

House Bill Makes Connection Between Transit Funding and Gas Price Relief

By Ben Fried | Jul 31, 2008 | No Comments

Here’s an alternative to the "Drill Now!" mantra that doesn’t involve ethanol subsidies or depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Earlier this month, Congressman Earl Blumenauer introduced the Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act [PDF]. Blumenauer’s hometown paper, The Oregonian, calls the measure a "smart bill": The key word in that title is […]

BRU ‘Blowsback’ at Metro’s Sales Tax Proposal

By Damien Newton | Jul 31, 2008 | 27 Comments

One week after Metro moved a half cent sales tax to the fall ballot, the Bus Rider’s Union launched it’s first attack in the press against what it terms, "The MTA’s sales-tax boondoggle" in today’s on-line "Blowback" section of the Times. The BRU breaks their attack into two arguments: that the funds generated by the […]

The U.S. Wants to “Borrow” From Transit to Pay for Highways

By Aaron Naparstek | Jul 29, 2008 | 2 Comments

Like a burned-out addict stealing to support a meth habit, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said yesterday that due to declining gas tax revenues, the Highway Trust Fund would need to borrow money from its mass transit account to pay for road projects. Today’s big news story was buried at the bottom of page A17 […]

$36,000,000,000 for Corn. $0 for Transit.

By Aaron Naparstek | Jul 25, 2008 | 1 Comment

The House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would provide emergency funding to local transit systems facing simultaneous increases in ridership and fuel costs. The legislation is now stalled in the Senate. The Bush Administration has made clear their distaste for funding mass transit operating costs. They say they don’t want local transit systems […]

Metro Board Passes Sales Tax Proposal

By Damien Newton | Jul 24, 2008 | 37 Comments

Asm. Mike Feuer and Boardmember Richard Katz Chat With the Press After Tax Proposal Passes After hours of debate, the Metro Board passed a virtually unchanged proposal to add a half cent sales tax increase, dedicated to a specific project list, to the fall ballot. Only Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Duarte City […]

Counting Down to Tomorrow’s Metro Board Meeting

By Damien Newton | Jul 23, 2008 | 1 Comment

Tomorrow is the Metro Board of Directors Meeting where the fate of the proposed sales tax proposal will be discussed and voted on for the final time. Before their ballot measure can be voted upon by the general public, it must also be approved by the state legislature. There’s a lot of things that still […]

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