The budget proposal unveiled by President Barack Obama to Congress on Monday earmarks more than $1 billion for California transportation and construction projects, including $330 million that Los Angeles city officials called crucial to extending an essential transportation line.
Overall, Obama would spend more than $800 million on transit throughout the state: including $165 million to expand the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to San Jose, and another $150 million toward a light-rail project in San Diego.
The president’s budget aims to make infrastructure spending propel a faster economic recovery for the nation and help uplift a struggling middle-class.
The plan would also seed California with money for a weapons systems, allot more than $600 million to build and renovate Veterans Affairs facilities, and set aside more than $200 million to help with plans for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to send another rover to Mars.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city’s slate of transportation projects, including the Metro Purple Line extension along Wilshire Boulevard to Century City, are now the largest public works program in the US and a top priority of his administration.
“I am going to make sure we spend these dollars efficiently through tough oversight and sound management,” he said in a statement.
Despite cheers in City Hall, the money for the anticipated public works programs is still far from committed.
Republicans who control Congress have already criticized Obama’s spending plan as “excessive” and too dependent on raising additional taxes, especially on the wealthy. In recent years, budget battles have left many federal spending programs with significant reductions by the time lawmakers struck working deals with the White House.
The House has previously approved funds for Los Angeles subway expansion. However, the issue of transportation funds, in general, has split Republicans in Congress.
More ardent conservatives in the chamber oppose appropriations already backed by more business-oriented supporters. One key player on the California transit funds will be House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. Garcetti has lobbied his office on the issue, but McCarthy has left his options open.
Regardless, both parties have said they are eager to approve new money for transportation and public works projects this year.
As for the funds, Metro’s money would be divided among three different projects: $115 million for the downtown regional connector set to link several strands of the subway system, $115 million toward the first phase of the Purple Line extension from Western Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard, and $100 million for the second phase of the Purple Line extension from La Cienega to the Century City Avenue of the Stars.
This is the first year that the Obama administration has included money for the Purple Line’s second phase, and provides a good indication that the project will continue to get federal money through 2026, when it is set for completion, according to city officials.
All three of the projects depend on local funds—collected through a voter-approved sales tax increase—for a significant portion of the estimated $6.5-billion combined total cost. But the federal money, which accounts for half the Purple Line’s whole cost and 44 percent of the regional connector’s cost, is crucial.
Congress members have already expressed their concerns over Obama’s budget document Monday, assessing the local and state impacts.
The NASA budget, for instance, was “a mixed bag” for the region, said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank). The budget more than doubled funds to send a rover to Mars by 2020 for sample collecting, but eliminated or cut money for other missions with ties to JPL, including a second Mars rover that is already operating, and a planned mission to explore one of Jupiter’s moons.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) of the complained that Obama trimmed some of the money he had requested to expand the system for giving early earthquake warnings, and provided no support for restoration of the Los Angeles River.
The Pentagon’s budget proposal would mainly help boost Southern California’s aerospace industry, help research and development funds, and increase weapon spending by as much as 15 percent.
(With reports from Los Angeles Times)
