With gasoline prices skyrocketing, key members of the Los Angeles business community are beginning to throw their political weight behind a sales tax increase to pay for more road and mass transit projects, including the beginning of the subway to the sea.
David Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, told me Tuesday that as a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member he intends to vote to move the sales tax forward toward the November ballot. He just wants assurances that the money won't be raided later for some other government purpose.
Fleming, a partner at the giant Latham & Watkins law firm, is former chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and lives in the San Fernando Valley. He was one of many business leaders that met Wednesday at the City Club in downtown Los Angeles to discuss the prospective sales tax.
Fleming was appointed to the MTA board by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who wants to build the subway to the sea. If Fleming is a bellwether on support for the sales tax in the business community or the mayor's office, that could translate into serious financial and political backing for a campaign that must ultimately win two-thirds voter support.
"We did a poll of our members in the business federation and asked them what are the three things you want us to work on," Fleming said. "We expected them to say taxes and regulation, but the No. 1 issue was congestion."
It's a sign that a coalition for a sales tax increase appears to be forming. Another twist is that Maria Elena Durazo, the secretary-treasurer of the influential Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, is also on record saying she may back such a tax because transportation improvements would help union members get around and probably provide construction jobs.
A bill in the Legislature would have to pass to allow L.A. County to take the issue to voters this year. And a majority of the MTA board would have to approve the tax measure."I don't think there's any question the majority of the board" would support it, Fleming said. "But we have to craft it in such a way that the public is going to understand it and support it."
There's been a fascinating technical race in the last few years as companies compete to give motorists real-time traffic information. The idea is that if motorists know there's heavy traffic ahead, they may divert to a less-congested route.
