Who Does Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New Funding Plan Leave Out?

On June 23rd, the full Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) board will consider placing a new ballot measure, commonly referred to as "Measure R2" on the November 2016 ballot. Metro CEO Phil Washington recently announced that Measure R2 would be a permanent, non-expiring sales tax extension and increase. By becoming a permanent fixture, Measure R2 will govern transportation infrastructure development for the County for at least 50 years, and will raise at least $120 billion.

The expenditure plan proposed by Metro is robust and atones for many of Los Angeles’ previous public transportation sins, such as putting transportation through the Sepulveda Pass, one of the worst stretches of congestion in the country.    

However, the expenditure plan does not include bringing new projects to areas in critical need of a public transportation hub, such as California State University, Northridge (CSUN). CSUN is the second largest public university in Los Angeles, with over 40,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff, who require over 200,000 weekly trips to campus. Currently, there is no plan to bring a direct rapid transit system to CSUN.

Leaders in the San Fernando Valley, including State Senator Robert Hertzberg, have organized "It’s Our Turn" to ensure that the one million Valley residents get a fair share of promised infrastructure investment in transit. As Sen. Hertzberg elaborates: 

“Last time, with Measure R, lots of things that were promised to the Valley didn’t end up happening—with the justifications that Metro ran out of money or had to change the order of projects. We wanted to make sure that there was no possibility of that kind of bait-and-switch in Measure R2.”

Read more about the upcoming Metro board hearing and hear more perspectives from other State Senators Tony Mendoza and Jim Beall, as well as San Fernando Valley leader Richard Close.