First, an aide to one of the County Supervisors tells LA Observed the LA Times "played the story wrong" regarding the board's failure today to back that proposed sales tax to fund the Subway to Sea. For those just catching up, it was reported today that the board voted not to back a sales tax that would help fund numerous transit projects, including the planned Subway to the Sea. But the aide tells LAObserved: "Voters WILL still vote on the sales tax issue. It will just be a separate ballot that voters will get during the same election." "This was all clearly explained at the meeting today." The headline and story on the home page of the Los Angeles Times remains, but another reporter, Steve Hymon, has updated his blog post to add this paragraph: "The supervisors’ failure to muster a simple majority to place the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot does not kill the measure, but makes it more complicated and more costly. If the Legislature gives its blessing — a bill to authorize the measure goes before a key committee Thursday — county election officials would create a separate “conditional” ballot that general election voters would also consider." The office of dissenting Supervisor Gloria Molina backed that up, telling Curbed that the decision to have a second ballot is currently being hammered out. (The Daily News' story is out: "Still, the 3-2 vote won't stop it from going before voters Nov. 4 - but now the county will have to spend up to $3 million to print it on a separate ballot."
Molina's press deputy, Roxane Marquez added: "The Board did not approve of [the sales tax] being on the same ballot [as the one with the other initiatives]... The Board of Supervisors is not going to rubber stamp a decision because they feel they don't have a choice." Marquez said Molina did not approve of how the ballot initiative was put together, calling it "backroom dealings." When asked if this was political bickering, she said that "one person's bickering is another person's negotiating."
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