The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority adopted a $5.6 billion budget Thursday, a spending blueprint that has increased 44 percent, or about $2 billion, in the past five years.
The behemoth bus, rail and highways agency known as Metro will spend more than 38 percent of its 2015-16 budget — about $2.1 billion — on rail projects, including the Crenshaw/LAX line, the downtown Regional Connector and the Purple Line extension to Westwood, as well as various highway improvement projects.
Additional costs for 2015-16 include the operation of two new light-rail lines: Expo Line Phase 2 to Santa Monica, and the Gold Line Phase 2a from Pasadena to the Azusa/Glendora border. Both are scheduled to open between April and June 2016, according to budget documents.
The new rail lines account for most of the additional 60 full-time employees who will be hired in 2015-16. By the end of the current fiscal year, Metro will have hired an additional 319 positions for the Gold Line to Azusa and the Expo Line to Santa Monica. By next year, Metro will have 9,717 full-time employees.
Aside from personnel, Metro will buy 350 new buses and 78 new light-rail cars, though the new vehicles will arrive over the next several years, according to budget documents.
Projects in the planning stages include: East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor, the people mover project to LAX, the extension of the Green Line in the South Bay and the Eastside Gold Line extension from East Los Angeles to South El Monte or Whittier or both. Metro’s planning and engineering budget will be used in part on improvements to the 605 Freeway, the north 5 Freeway enhancements, the south 710 Freeway early-action projects and the 710 North “gap closure.”
Overall, the budget will increase by 1 percent or about $53.4 million from the current 2014-15 fiscal year budget of $5.5 billion to $5.6 billion. In 2010, the agency’s budget equaled $3.9 billion. The increase — mostly in capital rail projects — comes from Measure R, a half-cent sales tax passed by voters in 2008 expected to raise $39 billion in 30 years.
Almost 50 percent of the agency’s revenues come from Los Angeles County taxpayers. Bond proceeds account for 22.8 percent; federal, state and local grants, 18 percent; passenger fares 6.8 percent and revenue from ExpressLanes (such as those on the 10 and 110 freeways), 2.2 percent.
Moneys paid by solo passengers riding ExpressLanes — high-occupancy vehicle toll lanes — is a growing source of Metro revenue. In 2015-16, toll lane revenues on the 10 and 110 freeways are expected to double, rising to $62 million, budget documents show.
The budget is inherited by new Metro CEO Phil Washington, who abided over his first Metro board meeting Thursday. Washington takes the place of Art Leahy, who was in the position for six years. Washington’s annual salary, including cash for living expenses, is $350,000.
After the board adopted the budget by unanimous vote, Washington said he may institute a zero-budgeting program, another way of saying he will be examining spending in every department.
Metro’s multi-billion expansion of rail and highways is the largest in the country. Metro operates 2,200 buses at 7.1 million bus service hours, a figure that will remain the same during the next fiscal year, according to Metro. Rail service hours will increase by 6.5 percent or about 66,700 hours in 2015-16, bring the total to 1.1 million hours.
Fares are not scheduled to increase, Metro reported.
