Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday
The MTA Board of Directors voted to place a sales tax increase on the November ballot in order to pay for Westside transit projects. Board Members Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Duarte City Councilman John Fasana were the only two members to vote against the tax. County Supervisor Gloria Molina abstained and County Supervisor Don Knabe was absent. The measure must now receive the approval of the County Board of Supervisors and then a 2/3 vote Countywide in order to go into effect. Significant opposition to the tax - which primarily benefits only West Los Angeles neighborhoods - exists in eastern and northern cities in the County which could derail passage. Additionally, a number of transit activists were either disappointed at items not included in the measure or were outright opposed to the spending plans.
City officials are afraid the state may turn to tapping into local funds to help balance the state budget. The City of Los Angeles is heavily lobbying against such a move considering the fiscal instability of the City at present. However, representatives from the Govenor's office as well as legislative leaders say there are no plans to go after local funds at present. But don't expect the Mayor won't use this as another reason to raise local taxes, uh, fees.
If you're looking for something fun to do next Tuesday in Boyle Heights, you can attend Councilman Jose Huizar's town hall meeting featuring the Councilmember and various City department heads. 6:00 p.m.., Tuesday, July 29th at The Puente Learning Center in Boyle Heights.
Labels: city budget, Councilman Jose Huizar, gloria molina, lausd, mayor antonio villaraigosa, mike antonovich, state budget, transit tax
Posted by Michael Higby @ 7/25/2008 03:00:00 AM
28 Comments:
This photo proves that Villaraigosa loves the homeless.
And the annoying.
Does Janelle Erickson mention that most of the city's likely voters think Villaraigosa is an incompetent, lying, race-baiting scumbag?
It has nothing to do with Wall Street, sweet cheeks.
These are LOCAL problems brought on by a LYING Mayor.
Go work for the White House, Janelle.
Yeah, the MTA tax would help the westside, where the traffic is the worst and no transit has been built at all. People commuting to westside jobs from all over LA County and who are fed up with the gridlock they get stuck in when they are there might actually like that. What a concept!
Out of 4 million people in LA the dumb ass Mayor only polls 100 people. Yeah right and we're to believe those results. We're not that stupid. Read the spin for the idiot Janelle.Another idiot!
....The poll questioned 100 voters in Los Angeles on July 11. It was conducted for the Mayor's Committee for Government Excellence and Accountability, Villaraigosa's political action committee. Spokeswoman Janelle Erickson said the 53 percent who feel the city is on the wrong track are simply reflecting national economic problems
I commute to the Westside every day and I don't support this stupid tax or your stinky subway. I support expanded freeways and oneway streets!
This is interesting. Guess her family wasn't that important or Huizar wants something more from this woman.
.....Jessica Wethington McLean
Family demands and other personal commitments necessitate that I withdraw from the ERNC Board after five great years.
.....The bright lights of Broadway shows have moved a step closer to shining in Downtown Los Angeles, now that Councilmember Jose Huizar has appointed Jessica Wethington McLean to lead Broadway project
Mayor Sam all these pro subway comments are from creepy Bart Reed who nobody can stand to be around for 30 seconds.
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I have an observation. If you don't care about my observation, stop reading this post NOW. Look at the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZC_oyDB3Bc&eurl=http://www.ladailyblog.blogspot.com/
Zumma Dog haters please pretend it is not Zumma Dog asking the questions. This is not about Zumma Dog. These are questions that any journalist could (or should) be asking the Mayor. Pretend it is Laurel Erickson or Leo Stallworth. They are legitimate questions regarding Special Order 40. Listen carefully and see how the Mayor starts off strongly supporting Special Order 40 as it is. He seems very clear and strong on his position. And after just a few tough questions, he totally caves in on his position and throws the responsibility off on Bratton. He goes so far as to speak for Bratton. I think this little video clip really capsulizes how he will say anything to not have to take a stand on an issue and to take the easy way out. This is not leadership.
7:25: Stay off our streets and get a job closer to home, you parochial a=hole. At least 85% of traffic during rush hours, which lasts all but a few hours in the middle of the day now, is people like YOU. You clog our roads, stink up our air and bitch about traffic while you're doing it, and rant against the westside because you couldn't afford to live in a nice home there, so it's a "screw the rich" mentality you share with the bitter Latina Glorias Molina and Romero, and bitter old Republicans from bedroom communities as dull and ugly as they are.
What L A SHOULD be doing is what London and other cities do: charge those like you a daily or annual fee for driving in, a "congestion tax," instead of also hitting the westsiders who suffer the consequences. Then use that money for the mass transit and road improvements. But NOT just to build them wider and wider to encourage more of you yahoos to drive in and create smog and pollution. You sound like one of those jurassic-era morons fighting the Expo II Line and subway. No one likes more taxes, but we like your selfish driving habits even less.
Why don't you look for a job near your home in Dullsville, and stop bitching then. We won't miss ya, and take all your friends with you.
7:25: ..."And I support one- way streets." Where were you when the local HOA that doesn't want you driving through their neighborhoods fought one-way and partial one-way like the Pico-Olympic Plan? Why didn't you show up at any of the meetings at their HOA;s or at the Transportation Comm.? Public complaint shows that a lot of people from outside of the area did support the idea, as well as many locals who were shouted down by the activists. But "silent majorities" don't count.
9:50: That's right -- people like me who work in your neighborhood and keep your property values up. Oh, and 9:50, put THIS in your pipe, bad boy ... go ahead and tax me, build your stupid subway and ride it. It doesn't matter. I WILL STILL DRIVE IN TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, and that's a promise.
Can Jay Babock take UbrayJ and Bart Reed to Brooklyn with him?
How does Janelle Erikson know the reason why people answered the questions the way they did unless that was one of the questions asked?
Or maybe it's just spin.
9:54: Your petty "na, na, na, na, na!" I'm going to stink up your neighborhood anyway, remark shows you should be charged the daily drive-in fee like in London. Maybe not the $50 bucks they charge, more like the $6-8 bucks daily NYC charges for its bridges and tunnels to access Manhattan: we should put tolls at the off-ramps and approaching the Westside. OR charge an annual car sticker fee of at least $1500. If you then still want to drive, dumbass, go ahead, and then you'll actually contribute something to our area -- which you don't now. (A sheer snide idiocy tax should apply to your type, too.) Most people will get out of their cars then.
BTW, hanging out on this post and replying every few minutes, your boss must be as thrilled with you as we westsiders are. Keep on truckin'... Sounds like you're really one of those retired reactionaries who show up at MTA meetings and every meeting to throw out nit-picking irrelevancies designed to kill everything with a quagmire of tiny, irrelevant details. You're not really someone who drives TO the westside, but one of those afraid "the smelly people" will take the subway and do so.
Which won't be the case: younger professionals who've envied mass transit in every other city will be on those trains too, as will accountants in their suits heading downtown, those working in Santa Monica in their Armani Exchange, along with the bikers, greens and your hero Smelly Mutt Dogg. Can't keep him off anymore than Eric and Dion can keep him from wasting our taxdollars and time at city hall.
Westside taxpayers have dutifully paid the Prop A and C sales taxes for transportation for 18 years and waited for construction of some decent public transit options other than local buses and a few express buses. These sales taxes are spread among various transportation modes and the benefits are spread countywide. Everyone stepped up and paid these taxes for the benefit of the general public good.
Unfortunately federal and state transportation funds are extremely constrained and Los Angeles is constantly ripped off by Congress and the State Legislature taking taxes we pay for transportation and sending them somewhere else.
Now comes a proposal supported by Antonio Villaraigosa. From what I know, it is a targeted sales tax that taxes everyone in the county but restricts the use to certain westside priorities. If that is true, I will not support it. I would give serious consideration to a new tax that pours money generally into the various transportation modes like Props A and C. But to propose a tax on all county residents and restrict its use to just a subset of the County is boneheaded and ill-fated. I guess we have another Villaraigosa failure of leadership on this one. Sad. So sad.
Real leadership would be for federal and state officials to fight in Congress for California to get a $1 taxes back for each $1 of taxes paid by state residents. This does not happen which is why our state is a net-giver to some other slacker states in the Union. We ought to be getting value back from the existing federal and state taxes that we pay. The Los Angeles area state and federal officials need to act TOGETHER to demand more transportation funds for the economic engine of the country.
But Antonio just thinks a tax on all to benefit a few is the answer. This thing is Dead On Arrival.
Holy crap the Transit Nazis have arrived in full force.
10:42 said: "younger professionals who've envied mass transit in every other city will be on those trains too, as will accountants in their suits heading downtown"
10:42, you are delusional. Seriously, brother, why not go to a place where you can live out your fantasies, like New York & San Francisco? You are only torturing yourself by living here.
You morons with your subway fetish are the #1 reason LA traffic is so bad today.
Westsiders only have their leadership to blame for their lack of transit - Zev and Waxman.
10:51
Your numbers and opinions are wrong. Most of the money goes to places outside of the Westside, including over 2 billion for transit improvements on the gold line, at least 1 billion to the SFV, and a few more billion sprinkled throughout LA County, with the rest of the monies being spent on unnamed projects.
Get your facts straight before posting...and I'd advise Jered Higby over there to do the same.
11:18: You are losing and losing faster by the year as you die off.
The rest of us are trying to bring the city into the 21st century, having skipped the 20th thanks to the likes of you. As you drag your obsolete old bods along our highways, happily polluting and congesting our city, it's YOU idiots who have made the city as congested what it is. How moronic -- your "arguments" get more and more laughably absurd, no one takes you as any more seriously than you deserve.
Get a clue MTA morons - the only people who ride the subways are the Mexicans you kick off the bus routes you cancel.
11:00A, make that "Nazi" (singular) because there's only one here. He refreshes MayorSam all day and flies off the handle when his transit gospel is challenged. I don't know what his problem is... maybe his briefs are too tight; maybe his parents never taught him how to drive. Who knows.
OK, 10:42... we get it. Anyone who disagrees with you is an old, white, balding, paunchy, rightwinger who lives in the cookiecutter boondocks and wishes nothing more than to live on YOUR block.
The people of the ER Neighborhood Council felt that it was not right that Jessica be both working for the Counciman and on the ERNC Land Use . It was suggested that she leave....Huizar would have been very happy to keep her there.
More on taxes (fees, license, enhancements, or pick your euphemism):
The city wishes to impose a five dollar "cat registration fee" for adopted and redeemed cats at the shelter. This would be on top of the newly increased adoption fees (around 30 dollars more now).
According to the report to the commission, this "registration fee" will generate 23 thousand a year for the city. Wow!! 'Guess we just balanced the budget on that one.
53% think al-lay is heading in the wrong direction, and the other 47% didn't understand the question because they don't speak English.
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