Committee recommends $10 million for Gold Line extension project - Pasadena Star-News
Committee recommends $10 million for Gold Line extension project
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/21/2009 06:06:20 PM PDT
Prompted by lobbying from San Gabriel Valley politicians, a county transportation committee has recommended the Gold Line extension receive $10 million in initial funding from Measure R, instead of the $127,000 that was originally budgeted for the light-rail line.
The amount must still be approved by the full Metropolitan Transportation Authority board next Thursday. But even with the possibility of more funding for the Gold Line now on the table, Valley officials are questioning whether Measure R funds are being distributed fairly.
"The original call for the Gold Line to get only $127,000 was an absolute slap in the face," said Glendora Councilman Doug Tessitor, who attended the transportation committee meeting Wednesday.
By comparison, the Exposition Line light-rail extension from the Culver City to the coast, which is also scheduled to start receiving funds in 2010, is slated to get $61.1 million.
John Fasana, the Duarte City Council member and an MTA board member, said he isn't sure why, for example, the proposed "Subway to the Sea" from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, which is still in the planning stages, is budgeted to receive $11.8 million. That project wasn't expected to receive any funds from Measure R - the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in November - until 2013.
"I haven't heard any good explanations for why that is, so far," said Fasana.
MTA Chief Financial Officer Terry Matsumoto defended the Subway to the Sea funding plan, saying the money would go for planning, not for construction.
"We look at the money-available date in the expenditure plan to mean funding actual construction work," said Matsumoto.
The MTA's proposed budget calls for $96.5 million slated for rail projects to be allocated to projects, and $28 million to be held in reserve.
Matsumoto said that, regardless of whether the motion passes next Thursday, the budget is likely to be changed later this year. The Gold Line, he said, received such a small allotment because it is not yet in the MTA's Long Range Plan. The board is scheduled to review that plan next month.
Matsumoto said he was certain the Gold Line would be added to the plan at that point.
"There is no question that it will be put in," said Matsumoto. "We would be in violation of Measure R if we didn't."
Once the board makes changes to the Long Range Plan, more resources could be committed to different projects, based on the priorities of the board, he added.
Getting more funds committed to the Gold Line in the long-term is the chief concern of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the independent board tasked with building the 24-mile rail extension.
"The $10 million doesn't build the line...We need a 5-7 year funding commitment," said Habib Balian, the CEO of the construction authority.
The $10 million, if approved next week, would allow design work to get started on the project, he said.
There is also a dispute between the MTA and the construction authority about who should do planning work for a rail maintenance yard that is supposed to be funded with Gold Line Measure R funds. Several locations where it might be built are under consideration in Duarte or Irwindale, but the land has not yet been acquired. The yard would be used by other county rail lines, not just the Gold Line.
The MTA views the maintenance yard project as a priority that should be well on the way toward being built before any construction funds are allocated to the Gold Line, said Matsumoto.
But Balian said the maintenance yard issue could be easily straightened out to allow completion of the Gold Line extension by 2013, the goal the authority has for completion if funding is provided.
"The maintenance yard acquisition was a new wrinkle they recently put in front of us," said Balian. "But we've presented Metro with a schedule that shows we can build the line and acquire the yard concurrently and get them open at the same time in 2013."
dan.abendschein@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 4451
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