Stimulus money to fund Gold Line Eastside Extension and not the Foothill Extension

Gold Line Foothill Extension left out of stimulus funding - Pasadena Star-News

Gold Line Foothill Extension left out of stimulus funding
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/11/2009 05:04:17 PM PDT

.San Gabriel Valley leaders expressed dismay Monday after learning that the Gold Line Foothill Extension project won't get federal stimulus money.

The MTA will instead apply $66.7 million in federal funds to the nearly completed Eastside Extension which will connect East Los Angeles to downtown when it opens this summer, officials said

Local officials hoped that a cash infusion for the Foothill Extension would create 26,530 new jobs. Some said they believe the Eastside Extension will not create any new jobs.

"They gave it to a project they already had money for," said Michael Cano, the transportation deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. "It is not keeping with the original intent of the stimulus funding."

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials had requested $150 million in funding for the Foothill Extension project.

Because the Gold Line is not in MTA's Long Range Plan, it did not qualify under the guidelines for the stimulus money, according to MTA spokesman Rick Jager. The guidelines were released in March, after the agency had already requested funding, he said.

Proponents of the Gold Line have argued that getting federal money for it would create thousands of new construction jobs.

"Stimulus dollars were intended to create jobs and spur economic growth," Alisa Do, a spokeswoman for Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, wrote in an e-mail. "We know that the Gold Line Foothill Extension will create over 30,000 jobs just in the construction period alone."

The Eastside Extension was actually already scheduled to get the $66.7 million in funding next year, according to Federal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Griffo.

David Yale, an MTA planning official, acknowledged that the $66.7 million would not create new jobs on the Eastside Extension. But he said it would help jobs to be created in the future.

"By paying off full-funding grants, the federal government will position itself to write new grants for 2010," said Yale. "Starting in October there will be more money for other projects... that is when you get the job creation."

There is no guarantee, however, that projects in Los Angeles County, including the Gold Line Foothill Extension, will be selected to get federal funds next year.

MTA board member and Duarte Councilman John Fasana said Foothill Extension never had much of a chance of getting funding in the first place.

"It was a stretch for it to qualify in the first place," he said. "We took a crack at it."

Some local politicians suspect the MTA never took the idea of getting stimulus funding for the Gold Line seriously.

"It's surprising they even applied for funding, because they've been such uneven supporters of the Gold Line," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said of MTA officials. "If they knew the Gold Line wouldn't qualify, I guess they had nothing to lose by making the request."

dan.abendschein@sgvn.com

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