405 Funding Debacle

George Skelton gives us a recent history lesson on the transportation bond campaign and the bait and switch done to the voters who approved the borrowing.

They were all but promised 405 congestion relief in TV and radio ads last fall. Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa and Nuñez cited the Sepulveda Pass as a prime example of a bottleneck that could be loosened by the bond. In L.A., the 405 was a poster freeway for the bond campaign.

The MTA was pushing hard for the carpool lane, a necessity to get transportation commission project approval.

When it didn't show on the commission staff's list of recommended projects, officials offered lame reasoning. Mainly, they expressed "confusion" over when the project would be ready to build. They wanted only projects ready by 2009 and thought the 405 couldn't start until 2011.

They didn't do their homework. This project had been fast-tracked by the governor and Legislature. Construction could start in 2009. Indeed, if it isn't begun by then, the project could lose $130 million in federal funding. L.A.'s bond money request is for $730 million.

" 'Confusion.' That's what bugs me," says new Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the budget subcommittee on transportation. "Pick up the phone. 'Hello, MTA, when is the project scheduled to start?' How long does that take?"

The Schwarzenegger Administration is really falling down on the job here. The transportation committee looks increasingly incompetent. And LA officials have had to resort to aggressive tactics to be able to get the funding they were promised in the first place.

When something doesn't go L.A.'s way, it flexes its muscle. That doesn't win friends and may even stir up old hatreds. But occasionally it's OK to be a bully, especially when someone's holding back your rightful share of bond money.

It didn't have to come to this. Like Feuer said, they could have simply picked up a phone and called. Arnold could have exerted his influence earlier.

I wonder who is going play the hero in all of this? It seems pretty evident that the 405 funds will appear. Nobody other than the commission staff seems to be fighting it. Not that their chances would be good given the star power in favor of it.