enjoy your tax hike that you all WANT..

A sales tax increase, says the mayor, puts us on the road to a better L.A.
By Antonio Villaraigosa
July 24, 2008
In 2005, I asked Angelenos to join me in re-imagining their city as a dynamic world capital defined by its flexibility and mobility, not by traffic and smog.

I challenged them to imagine communities connected not by bigger, wider highways but by a real network of public transit options -- rapid buses, trains and subway lines -- connecting every neighborhood in our county's 88 cities.


I asked them to imagine cleaner and greener neighborhoods where we each pitch in to combat global warming and create a more sustainable city.

Today, when I take the helm as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, I will seek to place a measure on the November ballot increasing the county sales tax by half a cent to raise the badly needed funding to help make this vision a reality.

Over the last three years, public transportation in Los Angeles has received an unexpected boost as record gas prices have changed the math and more commuters are ditching their cars for trains and buses. Yet, as a board member of the MTA, I have also watched every year as transit lines get cut, projects are scaled back and critical construction on our clogged freeways is delayed by budget concerns.

Lack of political will and lack of funding have always been the fundamental obstacles in the way of a vision that demands long-term commitment and big investment.

read it all here..
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...,4998090.story