"The approval of the half-cent sales tax delivered a more immediate victory to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who came into office more than three years ago pledging to finally start the city's so-called Subway to the Sea. Now, money to begin such a subterranean route -- probably along the Wilshire corridor -- is assured by the Measure R plan.
Measure R is expected to raise as much as $40 billion for projects on the list. The biggest and costliest is the Purple Line extension.
The MTA's spending plan for Measure R doesn't begin providing money to the subway until sometime between 2013 and 2015.
Supporters of Measure R early today were still a bit stunned that it had passed."
"It was unprecedented to get two-thirds of the vote in this environment -- this is the worst economic environment since the Great Depression," said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky early today."
Comments
67% is not "barely"!
With all due respect to the poster, the fact that the LA transportation measure "barely" passed is due to California's strange statutory approach to taxation, which requires a supermajority. In any other world, 67 percent would be a resounding success -- which it is, especially among 10 million people in the most diverse county in the world!
2/3 threshold requirement for local taxes in CA
Of course, 67% is hardly 'barely'. But as Chuck noted in One More CA Transit Measure: BART to SJ, "the percentage was 66.27 percent, just shy of 66.67%" for that transit measure.
Irvin Dawid, Palo Alto, CA