Gold Line to get $10 million

Gold Line to get $10 million - Whittier Daily News

Gold Line to get $10 million
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/28/2009 10:00:20 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES - Metro board members Thursday approved $10 million for the 24-mile Gold Line Foothill Extension.

The amount is substantially more than the $127,000 Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials originally allocated for the project in next year's budget.

The $10 million will come out of $96.5 million that MTA has committed to rail projects throughout the county. The funds are from Measure R, the half-cent sales-tax increase voters passed last November to pay for transit projects countywide.

County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who sponsored the motion for the additional funding for the Gold Line, credited San Gabriel Valley officials for its success.

"I have to give credit to the San Gabriel Valley people who kept showing up to meetings to lobby for this," he said.

Others cautioned that, while the $10 million was a good start, it means very little if the project does not receive a long-term commitment from the MTA over the next few years.

"This is a good first step - and the first time in 20 years the MTA has given us funding," said Habib Balian, head of the independent Gold Line Construction Authority. "It's not important, though, if we don't get the long-term commitment."

The vote for the funding at Thursday's MTA meeting was unanimous, although several board members were absent, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has in the past has opposed funding the Gold Line extension.

Several other board members who had previously opposed funding before Measure R voted Thursday to approve the $10 million for the Gold Line extension.

In MTA's Measure R plans, the Gold Line was scheduled to start receiving funds next year - a fact that its proponents pushed as the reason it should receive more than $127,000.

Other projects, they pointed out, seemed to be getting more favorable allotments. For example, the Exposition Line light-rail extension from Culver City to the coast, which is also scheduled to start receiving funds next year, is to get $61.1 million.

The proposed "Subway to the Sea" from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, which is still in the planning stages and was listed in the plan to begin receiving funds in 2013, is to receive $11.8 million next year.

Next month, the board will again discuss Gold Line funding to figure out how to allocate the funds, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman. Since Measure R tax revenues will only begin to be collected in July, it will take until at least November to get significant amounts of funding.

Getting the $10 million to the Gold Line might require digging into other funds, he added.

The board is also slated to discuss putting the Gold Line into MTA's Long Range Plan. That discussion will likely entail a completion date and the funding it can expect to receive.

dan.abendschein@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 4451