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Move L.A.’s Denny Zane Enlists Broad Support for Local Half-Cent Sales Tax for Congestion Relief

Having found a way to avoid seeking a two-thirds vote in the State Legislature to place a half-cents sales tax on the November ballot, Metro and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors are now considering whether L.A. County voters will approve a tax increase during troubled economic times. In the following interview, Move L.A. Executive Director Denny Zane details how his organization has helped unify a diverse collection of business, labor, and environmental interests in support for the initiative.

Published Monday June 30, 2008

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Denny Zane

Move L.A. is essentially your creation. What’s the focus and mission of this new regional environmental, labor, and business coalition?

We kicked it off with a meeting about a year ago, with 35 organizations representing business, labor, environmental, environmental justice, social justice, and communities talking about the complete lack of new money for transportation. All the existing money is tied up in existing services. How are we going to relieve our congestion, especially considering that, in 30 years, 3 million more people are going to live here?

We launched a conference in January, and had over 300 people attend. It was very well received, and it received a large amount of press attention. A number of key leaders in the county came and spoke—Maria Elena Durazo from the L.A. County Federation of Labor; Mayor Villaraigosa; several supervisors, including Zev Yaroslavsky; and Pam O’Connor, the chair of Metro. That began to move the discussion into focus with the sales tax, primarily because the sales tax would generate significant new money and is very well received by voters. Of all options, it still does better in meeting that goal than any other option.

After that, we started a series of briefings with each of these constituency groups, which helped Metro to crystallize its own thinking about what the best options were. They directed the preparation of the sales tax measure for the ballot, and last week, we had a major meeting—it might only be a modest exaggeration to call it historic—at the L.A. County Federation of Labor, hosted by Maria Elena Durazo. There were ten labor unions (building trades, operating engineers, laborers, Local 300 SEIU), a number of leading business organizations (L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, L.A. Business Federation, Central City Association, Valley Industry and Commerce Association, and the American Auto Club), and a rafter of environmental organizations (the Sierra Club, Coalition for Clean Air, and Environment Now). Metro leaders briefed them about the status of the sales tax measure, and then gave each constituency leader the chance to speak their mind about it.

We found that people really understand the problem. The judgment for the sales tax ranged from strongly supportive to “We will support this if we like the final language.” Nobody said anything discouraging. That was very good news, which really begins to create the foundation for an effective campaign if Metro goes forward and puts this on the ballot.

What approvals are needed from the Legislature and the Metro Board to place the sales tax measure on this November’s ballot?