Metro committee moves forward on $9.4-billion budget as Olympics funding remains uncertain
During a public budget hearing on Thursday and in written comments, residents cited safety as a top priority for Metro after a spate of violence against bus operators in recent years, and regular reports of crime in and around Metro stations. The transit agency's proposal includes more than $390 million for public safety — a nearly 2% increase from the last fiscal year.
The bulk of the budget would go to transit operations, with nearly $3 billion marked for rail and bus expansion and more than $2 billion for infrastructure planning for projects, including the Vermont Transit Corridor bus lane project and Sepulveda Corridor rail project, and construction for projects that include the D Line extension to the Westside.
But future funding remains uncertain amid questions over how tariffs and inflation will affect the economy, as well as state and federal investments.
'As we look ahead to major events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, we know we'll have to make some tough decisions. But we'll always use our core values to guide us,' Metro finance, budget and audit committee chair Tim Sandoval said Thursday.
The budget will be presented to the full Metro board next week.
The agency is facing "a deficit of $2.3 billion through 2030," Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins warned state leaders earlier this year. In a March letter to Senate Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast), Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and state Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), Wiggins said that while the transit agency is at 90% of pre-pandemic ridership numbers after a dip and has exceeded 2019 passenger numbers on Sundays, Metro still faces significant financial challenges. She advocated for the state to include a $2-billion request in its budget for transit operations equitably distributed among state agencies.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget revision on Wednesday did not include the request, ignoring transit and safe streets activists who have warned that the absence of those funds could cause service cuts for a number of public transit agencies throughout the state, including Metrolink.
'Public transportation is vital for jobs, for the health of our economy, and our goal is to ensure that everybody is able to get to where they need to go — from work to school to play — and we believe that the state has to play a role in ensuring that,' said Eli Lipmen of Move LA. 'The operations and maintenance of our system are also critical because the No. 1 issue for transit riders is reliability.'
Lipmen's organization was one of several that hung banners from freeway overpasses throughout the state this week calling on Newsom to 'fund transit.'
The state recently sued the Trump administration over its policy to deny billions of dollars in transportation grants if California didn't follow the federal government's plan for immigration enforcement. Lipmen supported the action but said the suit would affect only capital programs and that the state still needs to increase funds for transit operations.
The state budget proposal, which is still subject to change, did make a significant revision from January by pulling $17.6 million from the state's highway fund toward Olympics and Paralympics planning. The funding singled out Metro's Games Route Network, which would designate a series of roads for travel by athletes, media, officials, the International Olympics Committee, spectators and workers.
Critical parts of Metro's Olympics plans are yet to be nailed down. The agency has yet to confirm $2 billion in funds to lease nearly 3,000 buses, which are integral to Los Angeles' transit-first goal for the Games. The financial crisis affecting the city of Los Angeles, which has a separate budget from Metro, could also jeopardize plans ahead of 2028 as several transit and infrastructure agencies face cutbacks and layoffs.
The top leader for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, for example, warned that cuts would affect support for major rail and bus lane projects ahead of the 2028 Olympics, in addition to parking enforcement, traffic signal updates and goals to improve traffic safety. Streets LA and the Bureau for Engineering — departments responsible for street and bridge repairs — are also facing significant cuts.
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Report: How permitting requirements slow down California's transit projects
California's high-speed rail project has been heavily scrutinized in recent months for its long delays and rising budget. In its decision to pull federal funding from the project, the Trump administration blamed state leadership and the high-speed rail authority. A new report from a San Diego nonprofit points to third-party permitting requirements as another culprit to the project's long delays, and a reason for the slowdown on transit projects across the state. The report from the Circulate San Diego suggests that requirements first imposed decades ago to stop infrastructure projects from ripping up neighborhoods have created new hurdles that have put innovations around transportation years behind schedule. 'The policies meant to restrict highways from separating communities, are now preventing the construction of public transit, meant to stitch communities together,' Colin Parent, the chief executive and general council of Circulate San Diego, wrote in 'The Powerless Brokers: Why California Can't Build Transit.' The report was released Monday. The delays in transit projects aren't isolated to California, Parent said. But because the state's high-speed rail train is one of the most ambitious and widely criticized projects in the nation, the consequences of delays are staggering here. Multiple jurisdictions are often required to sign off on a project, outside of the leading transit agency. In the case of high-speed rail, Parent describes disputes that have occurred between the authority and city officials that have prolonged the timeline for construction. In Wasco, for example, disagreements between the city and the authority over the creation of an underpass and other projects led to years-long delays on construction and increased costs. 'I think a lot of people assume that when you're building transit, the transit agency decides what projects they want to build, they get funding, they do an environmental review, and then they're ready to go and to build things. And that's just not how it works,' Parent told The Times. 'They have to go through a whole new series of processes to receive permits and other agreements in order to actually build the projects that they've approved, and those additional sets of processes can create all sorts of delays, additional costs and other challenges to building the projects that policymakers say that we want to do.' Environmental reviews can take time, as can trying to gain public support. Not every city or county faces the same challenges when it comes to coordination on projects. The Los Angeles and Bay Area area regions each include 27 separate transit operators, Parent said. In the San Diego region, there are only two. In Los Angeles, Metro often has to coordinate with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Bureau of Engineering and Street Services. In the report, Parent highlighted the transit agency's extension project underneath Wilshire Boulevard for the D Line, formerly known as the Purple Line. The project saw broad support from city officials, but faced initial permitting challenges over demands by DWP and the Bureau of Engineering. In the early and middle 20th century, U.S. cities' infrastructure projects went unchecked, leading to the destruction of communities that largely displaced disadvantaged and working class residents. Perhaps no one represents the era better than the late urban planner Robert Moses, who shaped the New York City skyline and whose highway and bridge projects razed city blocks and neighborhoods. From his multiple appointed positions in state and local government, he was one of the most powerful and divisive figures in the state from the 1920s to the 1960s. In an effort to decentralize that kind of power with a system of checks and balances, community advocates pushed for laws to establish environmental standards and regulate project approval so that affected communities could be represented in decision-making. While no one has pushed for a return to the days of someone like Moses, Parent and state lawmakers in California believe that today's requirements have created new obstacles. 'A lot of the rules related to permitting that have gotten in the way of building infrastructure, including public transit, have really expanded since the 70s,' Parent said Monday. 'There's been this multi-decade growth in the kinds of barriers and hoops that applicants and public agencies have to jump through in order to get projects.' So, what's the solution? Because the delays in transit projects play out throughout the U.S., Parent believes standards in Quebec and Ontario could present a better model. There, transit agencies are allowed to self-permit if outside parties do not meet specific timeline requirements when it comes to permitting. 'Those local governments are under a timeline, and if they don't review and approve or deny those permits within a period of time, then the transit agency gets to self permit,' Parent said. State Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill this year that takes a similar approach. With focus on high-speed rail, the bill would implement time limits on third-party's approvals and denial process. During a recent state assembly hearing, Wiener said that 'any city or water district or special district where some sort of encroachment permit is required' can slow down a project's process by simply doing nothing. 'They can just not respond or drag their feet — sometimes for good reason … sometimes for not good reasons — and there is nothing that, in this case, high speed rail, can do about it,' he said.
CBS News
9 hours ago
- CBS News
Gas prices in Michigan decline about 10 cents a gallon
Gas prices in Michigan are down about 10 cents a gallon as compared to a week ago, AAA-The Auto Club Group reported. Michigan drivers are now paying an average of $3.13 per gallon for regular unleaded, the weekly report says. This price is 6 cents less than this time last month and 56 cents less than this time last year. For a 15-gallon tank of gas, that adds up to a fill-up cost of about $46. Compared to last week, Metro Detroit's average daily gas price decreased slightly. Metro Detroit's current average is $3.19 per gallon, about 2 cents less than last week's average and 50 cents less than this same time last year.
Boston Globe
11 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Today in History: Massive explosion rocks Beirut
In 1790, the US Coast Guard had its beginnings as President Washington signed a measure authorizing a group of revenue cutters to enforce tariffs, trade laws, and prevent smuggling. In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found hacked to death in their Fall River home. Police accused Lizzy Borden of the grisly murder of her father and stepmother leading to a sensationalized trial that ended in her acquittal. In 1916, the United States reached agreement with Denmark to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold. In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the second of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he prevailed in the long jump over German Luz Long, who was the first to congratulate him. Advertisement In 1944, 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank was arrested with her sister, parents, and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. In 1960, Burkina Faso declared its independence from France after more than 60 years of colonial rule. In 1964, 44 days after their murders, the bodies of missing civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. In 1972, Arthur Bremer was convicted and sentenced in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to 63 years in prison for his attempt on the life of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace. The sentence was later reduced to 53 years; Bremer was released from prison in 2007. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy. In 1984, the album 'Purple Rain,' by Prince and the Revolution, began its 24-week run at the top of the Billboard 200 record chart. In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues. In 1993, a federal judge sentenced Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 2.5 years in prison for violating Rodney King's civil rights. In 2009, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee for entering the country illegally and ordered their release during a surprise visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. In 2017, former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, who became notorious for a price-gouging scandal, was convicted on federal charges that he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds. Shkreli was later sentenced to seven years in prison. Advertisement In 2019, a masked gunman fired on revelers enjoying summer nightlife in a popular entertainment district of Dayton, Ohio, leaving nine people dead and 27 wounded; police said officers shot and killed the shooter within 30 seconds of the start of his rampage. In 2020, nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored for years in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, exploded, killing more than 200 people, injuring more than 7,000, and devastating nearby neighborhoods; it was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
