L.A. mayor holds back support on Lowenthal container tax bill

L.A. mayor holds back support on Lowenthal container tax bill A controversial California State Assembly container tax bill, which won a key vote in the State Senate last week, was dealt a setback this week when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tied his support of the bill to funding of local port projects.
   Villaraigosa, joining in a similar rebuke by the port of Long Beach Harbor Commission in April, declined to offer his support unless $1.5 billion in collected tax funds could be used for local infrastructure projects within the Southern California ports. The mayor specifically named two of the aging highway bridges serving the ports as critically in need of money for replacement or repair.
   SB974, authored by State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, seeks to impose a $30-per-TEU fee on all containers moving through the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland. Under the bill's current version the estimated $500 million in annual collected revenues would be evenly split between infrastructure improvements and environmental programs with the goal of improving goods movement and mitigating port impacts.
   “While the mayor supports Sen. Lowenthal’s efforts to bring needed private participation to environmental mitigation and infrastructure projects, he is concerned that the bill, as currently written, excludes certain highway projects from funding,” mayoral spokesman Matt Szabo told the Daily Breeze newspaper.
   The bill calls for infrastructure funds to be limited to rail and non-highway container moving systems, such as the short-haul mag-lev system being shopped around by a San Diego group.
   This is Lowenthal's third attempt to get a container tax bill passed. The first died on the assembly floor, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the second attempt last year.
   In April, Long Beach port commissioners voted 3-2 to put the port's support behind the measure if, and only if, the language of the bill was changed to meet three board concerns:
   ' Money collected locally stayed for local use.
   ' The ports would not be penalized for not attaining self-set pollution goals.
   ' Local tax funds could be used for projects such as the bridges.
   While the port was able to negotiate with Lowenthal to change the first two items, the third item, mirroring Villaraigosa's concern, remains unresolved.