There are two questions hanging over Move LA’s 7th Annual Transportation Conversation: Question #1) How robust a sales tax measure should Metro place before voters in 2016? Should it be for 30-years, like Measure R -- which could provide an estimated $46 billion for transportation improvements? Or a 45-year measure that could provide $92 billion or more? Or how about a measure with no sunset — which would provide a permanent endowment for transportation modernization in LA County?
Question #2: Will we continue Measure R’s strong commitment to transit expansion? Will we also make room in the budget for expansion of the bus system and for complete streets and bike and pedestrian improvements along Grand Boulevards? Shouldn’t we also invest in helping to bring clean freight technologies to market?
Bottom line: How robust an investment plan do we need to not only relieve traffic congestion and keep our economy moving but to also get serious about fighting climate change?
The answers to these looming questions are about both politics and priorities.
At Move LA we think the decisions about these questions should not be made until spring 2016, because it's closer to the November election. Why wait? Because we will know more.
The economic and political environment may be different because the economy will likely have improved, the Expo Line will have reached the Westside and the Foothill Gold Line will have arrived in Azusa -- so voters will see that Metro has kept its Measure R promises -- and because the possibility of same-day voter registration (on Election Day) will have become real (or not).
Either way it’s premature to decide now. But we should talk now, understand our choices now, get our legislative authorization to move forward now, and get ready to make the other decisions next year.
Join us in this conversation at Union Station TOMORROW!