"It's like a totalitarian country where I'm just following orders," Antonovich said, adding that the MTA should try again next year. "Somebody has to stand up and say this is nonsense."
Knabe, a fiscal conservative, initially said he would vote to put the tax increase on the ballot to avoid having taxpayers pay for the symbolic vote he wanted to cast against it. He said he thinks the current spending plan is unfair to the south county district he represents. Then he reversed course and voted against the tax.
After hearing more about the potential problems a separate ballot could cause, Knabe asked his colleagues to reconsider the earlier vote -- then voted against reconsideration.
"I think it got everybody's attention that there is an equity issue here," Knabe said, adding that he expects the MTA to successfully sue the county.
Transit advocates and others expressed frustration over the day's events.
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce issued a statement denouncing the vote, even though the chamber has yet to take an official position on the sales tax proposal.
"Voters should be allowed to consider all potential solutions, including a half-cent sales tax increase to fund transportation projects," Gary Toebben, chamber president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Dana Gabbard of Southern California Transit Advocates said supervisors failed to understand that people from their districts travel into other districts and would benefit from the projects.
"Are they afraid someone across the fence will get more" than them? Gabbard said. "The parochialism in this just boggles the mind."
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steve.hymon@latimes.com
garrett.therolf@latimes.com
