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Remember, the City of Sierra Madre has already spent a lot of money in the effort to defeat the 710 Tunnel. $50,000 is the number that comes to mind, though it could be more. Which in my opinion was a very good thing to do. It was money wisely spent.
However, here is the problem as I see it. While Los Angeles County authorities such as Metro and CalTRANS, along with such regional deplorables as SCAG, have worked very hard to assure people that Measure M funds will never be used in any way to help plan - or God forbid build - the 710 Tunnel, there is nothing at all about any restrictions on the already existing funds that this new sales tax revenue will likely free up. We're talking about Prop R and other similar money pots.
By using new Prop M moneys to pay for some of the things these other funds have been covering until now, couldn't that quite possibly free up some ready cash elsewhere to help push forward the 710 Tunnel? Of course it could. It would merely be a matter of shifting around some of those already existing revenues. And what control would you have over that?
Unlike with Measure M, there are no such restrictions in place for already existing fund sources such as Props R. Measure M will raise an additional $121 billion dollars. Wouldn't that free up a lot of cash from any previous propositions and tax money streams, money that could then easily be used in other ways?
And there is absolutely nothing anywhere that says any freed up funds from those other propositions and tax resources will never be used to help pay for the 710 Tunnel.
Better to just Vote NO. Why take the chance?
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