Link: Construction workers rally in support of transit project plan in Los Angeles County - LA Daily News
Construction workers rally in support of transit project plan in Los Angeles County
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer
Updated: 04/14/2010 08:38:20 PM PDT
Wearing hard hats and carrying picket signs, nearly 1,000 construction workers demonstrated Wednesday in support of a plan asking the federal government to expedite funding for transit projects in Los Angeles County.
The rally was led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, with county Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky, who urged workers to lobby Congress to approve the so-called 30/10 program.
Local officials hope to get an advance of $40 billion – the amount expected to be raised by the Measure R half-cent per dollar sales tax. The advance would allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the projects in 10 years, but repay the money over a 30-year period.
"A year and a half ago, you joined with us to approve Measure R," Villaraigosa said. "Now it is time to pressure the federal government to guarantee that we can create the jobs now."
Yaroslavksy said the 30/10 program would have wide-ranging benefits. "This nation cannot begin to recover until California goes back to work, and California cannot begin to recover until Los Angeles goes back to work," Yaroslavsky said. "It all begins here."
The trades' unions are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., next week where similar rallies are expected to be held.
The MTA board is scheduled to take a formal position on the measure later this month, although several board members have already come out in favor of the plan.
Villaraigosa also has
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made several lobbying trips to Washington, D.C., and has won backing for the plan from Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
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