p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> <\/p>\n
Los Angeles officials have long complained that the Trump administration hasn\u2019t done enough to prioritize transportation funding for the 2028 Summer Olympics in the deep-blue metropolis, but Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-dominated state Legislature are turning out to be just as tight with a buck.<\/p>\n
Sacramento has rejected the vast majority of transportation funding requests linked to the 2028 Olympics \u2014 a situation that leaves L.A. Metro, the giant transit agency, in an unexpected position: struggling as much with Sacramento as with the Republican-controlled White House and Congress when it comes to financial support to move athletes and visitors during an Olympics that is now just 22 months away.<\/p>\n
L.A. Metro asked for $379 million for Olympics-related transportation projects in the just-completed legislative session. It got only $20 million.<\/p>\n
Among the requests for state money that lawmakers rejected:<\/p>\n
$138 million for a cloud-based computing system, traffic cameras and video connectivity to help expand and integrate transportation management systems controlled by Caltrans and the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation. $65 million for installing emergency tracks where light rail trains can be diverted when they break down, and some related expenses. The six extra \u201cinterlock\u201d tracks \u2014 in Long Beach, Highland Park, Santa Monica, the Crenshaw district and two other locations \u2014 will be particularly critical during the Olympics, when a stalled train could delay lines expected to carry twice their normal passenger loads, according to L.A. Metro. $23 million to improve four key transit hubs, adding seating, shade structures, Wi-Fi, restrooms, hydration stations, vending machines and concessions. Local elected officials have said repeatedly that Southern California must have such amenities to make travel more comfortable, particularly during heat waves. <\/p>\n
The behind-the-scenes budget fight in Sacramento comes as L.A. has been locked in a delicate dance with Washington over funding Congress needs to allocate, likely with Trump\u2019s blessing. Legislators in Sacramento signaled they are loathe to push money toward Olympic transportation in the face of what they see as stalling in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started to hear this phrase that they didn\u2019t want to \u2018bail out the federal government,\u2019\u201d said one Southern California transportation official, who declined to be named to speak candidly about closed-door talks with state lawmakers. \u201cThat felt like a way to avoid a serious conversation about what was really needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newsom\u2019s office referred questions on Olympics transit to Caltrans. A spokesman there said the state has dedicated more than $300 million to the 2028 effort, and also \u201cadvocated for necessary federal funding to augment state and local commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the governor appeared in front of the Memorial Coliseum with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and state lawmakers to tout contributions the state has made to support the Olympics in other ways, including $96.5 million to \u201cupgrade and modernize\u201d Exposition Park around the historic stadium.<\/p>\n
State Senate President Monique Lim\u00f3n of Santa Barbara said the state had made a \u201cmeaningful investment\u201d in communities hosting the games \u2014 pointing to the $20 million for transportation and another $10 million for policing. \u201cWe look forward to the federal government following through on its commitment to invest in transportation and infrastructure\u201d around the Olympics, Lim\u00f3n said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas\u2019 office didn\u2019t reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
None of the top leaders in California state government come from cities hosting the Games, with Newsom a product of the Bay Area, Lim\u00f3n from the Central Coast and Rivas hailing from San Benito County.<\/p>\n
Others who tried to coax transporation funding through the Legislature cited varied reasons for the state\u2019s apparent reluctance to make Olympics funding a higher priority, including:<\/p>\n
A belief among some state officials that California already has put a lot on the line for the Olympics. Sacramento has set aside about $175 million for Caltrans to erect barriers, paint special traffic lanes and take other measures to create a Games Route Network to help athletes, officials, media and others speed past traffic during the Olympics. The state will spend millions more on a public relations campaign to keep drivers off the road during the Games, and has pledged to help pay off up to $270 million of any deficit should the private nonprofit running the Games lose money.
Reluctance from lawmakers outside Southern California to pay for big-ticket L.A. projects when their corners of California have been told \u201cno.\u201d Case in point: Bay Area transit agencies this year faced gaping budget deficits that threatened to force a huge reduction in service hours and shut down bus stops and rail stations. The state would only provide a stop-gap loan, forcing BART and other transit agencies to put a sales tax on the November ballot to keep service afloat.
Concern that the state not be stuck OKing Olympic funding, while the federal government failed to live up to its previous pledges to help pay for transportation for the Games. <\/p>\n
None of that reasoning offers much comfort to officials in L.A. trying to help pull off what is being touted as the biggest sports event in the nation\u2019s history. They complained in interviews with The Times that Newsom and legislative leaders focused on other priorities, including recovery from the 2025 L.A. County fire disaster, while paying much less attention to the Olympics.<\/p>\n
The funding denials from Sacramento are for projects that need to get underway soon in order to be ready in time for the opening ceremonies at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium on July 14, 2028. Given the time constraints, it\u2019s unclear which proposals L.A. transportation leaders might bring back to the state Capitol next year.<\/p>\n
The significantly larger request for funds from Washington \u2014 up to $2 billion for Metro and other Southern California transit agencies \u2014 has received the bulk of the attention from politicians in L.A.<\/p>\n
In June, House lawmakers sent a long-awaited positive signal for LA28 when a committee approved $875 million for public transportation for the Games. Finalized funding would have to come in December, when Congress\u2019 stopgap government funding expires and lawmakers could pass a budget package.<\/p>\n
Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins said she was \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d that the federal government would ultimately support Olympic transit service after meeting with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week while in Washington for a transit summit. Wiggins said the summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup events had helped reinforce the administration\u2019s understanding of the role that \u201cproperly funded\u201d transportation will play in the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
Nearly $1 billion of L.A.\u2019s ask would be used to lease up to 1,748 buses from neighboring communities and states and to hire and house thousands of drivers and support workers. But Metro leaders said that without the federal money for extra buses and workers \u2014 essentially doubling the agency\u2019s fleet \u2014 they\u2019ll be unable to deliver the bus service fans will need.<\/p>\n
Leaders of LA28, the nonprofit responsible for putting on the Games, have also expressed confidence that the Trump administration will back funding. \u201cThe Administration shares our commitment to world-class mobility for spectators, the Games\u2019 workforce, and the public,\u201d LA28 spokesperson Jacie Prieto Lopez said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great, but the Republicans we have talked to in Congress said they still haven\u2019t gotten direction from the White House to make that happen,\u201d said one local transportation official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the delicacy of talks.<\/p>\n
Bass, who chairs the L.A. Metro board, urged Washington to approve the funding. Without the money, the giant bus and light rail provider could be forced to drop its plans for expanded service. She also said a failure to expand the transit system could also impact the Olympics\u2019 bottom line and \u201cput local and state taxpayer dollars at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because of an agreement approved by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city officials committing Los Angeles to be a financial backstop for the 2028 Games. If the nonprofit LA28 spends more than it takes in, Los Angeles will be responsible for repaying the first $270 million in debts. The state of California will cover the next $270 million in losses. Any deficit above $540 million would be paid by L.A. and its taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a comprehensive transit system, we could have empty stadiums and cramped roadways,\u201d Bass said at a meeting of the Metro board last week. \u201cAnd we most certainly don\u2019t want that \u2014 or other challenges we have in our district, in our city, in our region \u2014 to be how the world remembers the Olympic Games here and Paralympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass suggested L.A. Metro might cede \u201cthe massive responsibility of delivering a spectator and workforce transit system\u201d to LA28.<\/p>\n
But LA28\u2019s leaders have repeatedly signaled that they have more than enough responsibilities \u2014 including preparing more than two dozen venues in Southern California and an athletes\u2019 Olympic Village at UCLA. They\u2019ve made clear to city officials they don\u2019t appreciate attempts to saddle them with additional duties.<\/p>\n
Times staff writer Colleen Shalby contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> Los Angeles officials have long complained that the Trump administration hasn\u2019t done enough to prioritize transportation funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1752,185566,10678,35385,27729,4263,3335,6247,121,123,122,1009,11662,27990,1967,1695,558],"class_list":["post-471833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-congress","tag-funding-denial","tag-games","tag-l-a-metro","tag-la28","tag-money","tag-official","tag-request","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-southern-california","tag-state-lawmaker","tag-summer-olympics","tag-transportation","tag-trump-administration","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}