Yaroslavsky Seeks to Staunch Subway Funds

In a bid to end the MTA’s love affair with the subway, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky today will launch a ballot campaign to prevent the use of Los Angeles County’s penny-on-the-dollar transit sales tax for any underground extension of the Metro Rail system.

The initiative is aimed at depriving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of its ability to use sales tax receipts for any below-ground extension of the subway to the Eastside or Mid-City.

Yaroslavsky, who has supported construction of the subway during much of his political career, said Sunday that the time has come to change course at the MTA by emphasizing light rail lines and improved bus service.

“The subway has been a national embarrassment,” Yaroslavsky said. “The subway is the most mismanaged public works project in the nation.”

The supervisor derided the subway system, now projected to cost $6.1 billion, as “a boondoggle” that has been plagued by massive cost overruns and construction mishaps. He said the initiative would give the county a “more affordable, efficient and sensible transit system.”

Yaroslavsky has been threatening to undertake a ballot campaign since last summer to prevent construction of any more subway lines beyond the six-mile Red Line, already in operation from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

Another 11 miles--from that intersection to North Hollywood--is under construction and would be unaffected by Yaroslavsky’s proposal.

Yaroslavsky warned that proceeding with the next planned segments--extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City, now under a temporary suspension--would threaten to bankrupt the agency.

However, he said, the ballot measure would be a boost for the planned light rail line from Union Station to Pasadena, which is also on hold.

The MTA’s acting chief executive officer, Julian Burke, offered no comment about the initiative when reached Sunday. “I really need to see it,” Burke said. “I don’t quite know its boundaries.”

If the measure qualifies for the November ballot and is approved by a majority of county voters, it would restrict the use of the sales tax--the MTA’s financial lifeblood--to existing subway lines, carpool lanes, light-rail projects and improved bus service and busways. It would flatly prohibit further extension of the Red Line beyond North Hollywood, unless tracks are built at or above ground level.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who also serves as vice-chair of the MTA board, said Sunday that such restrictions would effectively kill a Red Line extension.

The measure would require an annual independent audit of the agency’s use of the transit sales tax, which this year will raise more than $880 million.

The initiative also would establish a five-member board to oversee use of the sales tax money and report to the public. The chairman of the MTA and of the Board of Supervisors would each have an appointee to the board along with the mayors of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Pasadena.

Yaroslavsky said no elected officials could serve on the oversight panel.

The supervisor, who is running for reelection this year against token opposition, must collect 103,000 signatures of registered voters to get the self-described MTA Reform and Accountability Act on the November ballot.

“My purpose . . . is to give the people of Los Angeles County the historic opportunity to determine for themselves how scarce transportation funding should be spent,” he said.

Although he would not release the results, Yaroslavsky said private polls show county voters hold a very negative impression of the MTA and the subway project, but are more favorably disposed toward use of sales tax money for improved bus service and light rail lines. Yaroslavsky said five miles of light rail can be built for every one mile of subway.

The county’s voters solidly approved the first of two half-cent sales taxes for mass transit in November 1980. The second narrowly won passage 10 years later.

The initiative campaign is likely to encounter heavy opposition from MTA board members, who have long pushed for the subway, and from the beneficiaries of the underground rail system, including major construction and engineering firms.

By launching the ballot campaign now, Yaroslavsky may also be casting a cloud over the MTA’s plan to borrow up to $250 million in coming months against future sales tax receipts. The initiative clearly states that no sales tax money can be used to design, build or operate new subways beyond North Hollywood, including payment of interest on new debt issued after today.