12/18/12 Denny Zane and Gloria Ohland: How to turn Measure J defeat into victory - LA Daily News Weather: Live Traffic: 2N 2S 5N 5S 14N 14S 101N 101S 118E 118W 405N 405S VAN NUYS, CA | Now : 57ºF | High: 58ºF | Low : 45ºF | 5-Day Forecast Subscriber Services | Hom e Delivery | e-Edition | Mobile Search Site Home News Most Viewed Sports Business Most E-Mailed 1. Man killed crossing street in Van Nuys this morning 2. Santa Monica parking garage explosion work of prankster, police... 3. Jenni Rivera memorial will be at Gibson Amphitheatre 4. LAKERS NOTEBOOK: Pau Gasol may return soon, Steve Nash still a... 5. Reputed L.A. gang member extradited from Mexico in court over... 6. Sandy Hook shooting victim Madeline Hsu 7. iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S3: Who wins the battle between the two hottest... 8. OC mother of 3 pleads guilty to sexually assaulting teen 9. NRA takes down Facebook page, goes silent on Twitter 10. Los Angeles getting 53 new crosswalks Opinions Recommend Login | New sletter | Alerts | Web Search pow ered by YAHOO! SEARCH Entertainment / Living Blogs Info Place Ad Share Be the first of your friends to recommend this. Print Em ail Classifieds Homes Tw eet Jobs 0 Font R e size Denny Zane and Gloria Ohland: How to turn Measure J defeat into victory By De nny Zane and Gloria O hland Poste d: 12/13/2012 04:39:11 PM PST Update d: 12/13/2012 04:39:55 PM PST Only in California would getting 66 percent of the vote be a defeat instead of a landslide victory. Losing Measure J by 0.56 percentage points, even as it won 66.11 percent of the popular vote, was a painful and, frankly, appalling reminder that the ghost of Howard Jarvis still hovers over California. But out of disappointment emerges opportunity: It's important to remember that Measure J was actually "Plan B" for financing the 30-10 plan to build out Los Angeles County's Measure R-funded rail expansion in 10 years instead of 30. "Plan A" was an innovative federal financing package - called America Fast Forward -- that was a combination of two proposals: 1) the TIFIA (Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act) low-interest loan program, and 2) a new class of qualified tax credit bonds called QTIBs (Qualified Transportation Improvement Bonds). QTIBs would have allowed issuers to finance more than twice the dollar value of capital improvements than is possible with traditional tax-exempt bonds, thereby easing demand for financially constrained federal grant programs. Congress considered both components of the America Fast Forward proposal but enacted only the TIFIA program. Speculation at the time was that the QTIB program reminded Republicans of the Build America Bond Program, surely one of the most successful components of President Obama's stimulus package. In an election year, Republicans were not willing to embrace anything invoking an Obama success. Advertisement But the election is over, and a new dynamic is in place. The transportation bill signed into law last July that included the dramatically expanded TIFIA e-Cigarettes Exposed! If you are a smoker in California you better read this... Weird Loophole in California: If you pay more than $7 for car insurance you better read this... Pacoima Arrest Records Who do you know in Pacoima that's been arrested? You? Your… program was only a two-year bill, instead of the normal six years, forcing Congress to pick up deliberations on a new bill in the near term. This creates opportunity for Congress to reconsider the QTIB program, which together with TIFIA would allow L.A. County to accelerate Measure R without Measure J. After all, the QTIB program is a very Republican-friendly idea -- it involves public-private partnerships, allowing private lenders to loan money to transit agencies with the federal government providing tax credits to lower the interest rate. This could be a good way to turn a sow's ear -Measure J's defeat -- into a silk purse by creating the momentum for a successful national program that could finance acceleration of Measure R and provide similar benefit to other regions. Or we could turn a sow's ear into two silk purses by recognizing that the two-thirds supermajority requirement for the passage of a special tax really is a perversion of democracy. Assemblyman Henry Perea, a moderate Democrat from Fresno, has authored a bill to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would reduce the voter threshold for passage of local transportation funding measures to 55 percent. RSS | Local Ads | Front page Autos Obits Shopping Opinions Howard Berman for California Assembly? 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Columnist Tim Rutten joins our opinion pages Another View: Gaymarriage ruling less important than public opinion Move LA has endorsed this amendment, as has Mobility 21, a coalition of seven county transportation commissions and six chambers of commerce and other business alliances, including the American Automobile Association. At the request of Move LA, Perea amended the bill to provide that, if approved by voters, the measure would be effective immediately. This means it would apply to every qualifying local measure on the ballot -- these measures would only need a 55 percent majority. Last year, a poll of Southern California voters found 64 percent would support reducing the voter threshold to 55 www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_22188094/denny-zane-and-gloria-ohland-how-turn-measure 1/3 12/18/12 Denny Zane and Gloria Ohland: How to turn Measure J defeat into victory - LA Daily News Last year, a poll of Southern California voters found 64 percent would support reducing the voter threshold to 55 percent for transportation funding measures. It is important to note that those six counties represent half of all voters in the State of California and mirror the makeup of the statewide electorate. 0 Tw eet Moreover, the results of this November's election appear likely to give Democrats two-thirds votes in both legislative branches, the number required to place a constitutional amendment before state voters. And because it would not raise taxes, there's even the possibility of Republican support. 0 Is it possible that Gov. Jerry Brown, fresh off the forward momentum of Proposition 30 and Democratic gains in both houses of the Legislature, could become interested in a partnership with the Southern California businesslabor-environmental coalition that supported Measure J? Would he work with us to change the local voter threshold for new transportation revenue sources? Like 0 StumbleUpon Submit We are betting on it. Together we could return California to responsible democratic governance rather than the perversion of democracy that is the two-thirds vote requirement. Two silk purses are well worth enduring a sow's ear. Denny Zane is executive director and Gloria Ohland is policy and communications director of the nonprofit Move LA. R e turn to Top Recommended for You NRA takes down Facebook page, goes silent on... OC mother of 3 pleads guilty to sexually... Sandy Hook shooting victim Josephine Gay will... Sandy Hook shooting victim Anne Marie Murphy... Reputed L.A. gang member extradited from Mexico... 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