Fifteen municipal or regional bus services in Los Angeles County that receive funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be among the first to benefit from a newly approved transportation sales tax.
Steve Scauzillo reports on the surprising benefits of Measure M, a countywide transportation funding measure approved by voters in November, to local bus services around the county.
Case in point: the city of Norwalk, where Norwalk Transit "will get a 10 percent bump in its annual budget starting in 2017 and continuing each year for perpetuity." According to Scauzillo, the funding bump is common to the county's local bus agencies: "their Measure M share may show up sooner and be more relatable to bus riders than any mega-project funded in the measure."
A sidebar running next to Scauzillo's article details the transit funding windfall in annual dollar amounts to each local bus service:
- Foothill Transit: $11.1 million
- Long Beach Transit: $9.8 million
- Santa Monica Big Blue Bus: $8.4 million
- Montebello Municipal Bus Lines: $3.5 million
- Torrance Transit: $2.69 million
- Santa Clarita Transit: $2.65 million
- Antelope Valley Transit: $2.5 million
- Culver City Transit: $2.24 million
- Gardena GTrans: $2.22 million
- Norwalk Transit System: $1.3 million
- Redondo Beach The WAVE and Beach City Transit: $305,000
- Commerce Municipal Bus Lines: $161,000
- Arcadia Transit: $119,400
- Claremont Dial a Ride: $76,000
- La Mirada Transit: $47,000
In the case of Norwalk Transit, the funding could enable new bus lines and the restoration of lines cut from the system in leaner times.
FULL STORY: The surprise first big winner from Measure M’s transportation tax: LA County’s buses
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