In the midst of all the attention focused on the presidential race and Prop 8, the statewide measure that would take away basic civil rights from certain classes of people, a county measure in Los Angeles is beginning to heat up. Measure R, put forth by transit officials proposes to raise $40 billion for light rail, buses and road work through a half-cent sales tax hike is beginning to garner the attention it deserves in the final moments of this election calendar.

Anyone living in Los Angeles will quickly tell you about the nightmare of living in a metropolis whose leaders long gone, decided against the foresight of developing a public transportation system that you would easily find in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco-Oakland Bay area and Washington, DC.

And unlike many of those urban centers, the population continues to grow thanks to its climate, immigration (legal and illegal) and Hollywood dreams. Housing and transportation needs are busting at the seems and the transit officials are asking residents to fund a broad range of improvements through a sales tax increase.

The "YES" on Measure R campaign advertises in a rather disingenuine fashion. Voters are too believe that this will decrease our dependence on foreign oil and decrease global warming. Maybe the latter, but the former appears to be a stretch on its own. But clearly, campaign strategists are tapping into L.A.'s liberal wishes.

Many of L.A. County's 88 municipalities oppose the measure because they don't think transit officials will spend one dime to improve transit service in their communities. And there are two separate groups here. Innercity advocates who have long made this criticism and now suburban enclaves who want greater service than the innercity folks believe they already receive too much of. Let's call this the "fairness" issue.

Taxpayer advocates simply don't like the idea of any new taxes and thus they oppose. Let's call this the "tax" issue.

Then there are those who don't believe transit officials have an adequate plan for the monies raised and feel transit bureaucrats could easily squander billions of dollars over the next 30 years. Let's call this the "reasonability" issue.

But the "YES" campaign only has to deal with a single labor union opposition to its campaign. Politically, the Engineers and Architects Association wants to grab the attention of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who supports Measure R and his longtime campaign consultant is running the Measure R campaign.

Nevermind the powerful L.A. County Federation of Labor heavily supports Measure R. The Engineers want their pay raises and are criticizing Measure R on the reasonability issue, ignoring fairness and the worthiness of taxes. Time will tell if they are serious or effective, but certainly this is not the best way to win negotiations support from the Mayor.

Villaraigosa is less than six months away from re-election, he promised to help the city's transportation crisis. They should be helping this effort, not hurting.

Certainly I will not be persuaded against Measure R, though I don't want another tax on poor and moderate income citizens and I do have real concerns over the fairness of the transit improvements planned.

But significant improvements are needed. That's my engineered opinion.