Full funding of the Gold Line foothill extension to Pomona, with the option of going to Claremont and Montclair, is up for a vote Thursday, Aug. 8, but the ask requires San Gabriel Valley cities to give up more than 60% of their discretionary transportation dollars to fill the funding gap.

Without an extra $126 million, the 12.3-mile extension from Glendora to Montclair would be delayed at least two years and could become more expensive due to escalating costs of labor and tariffs on raw materials, according to the Gold Line Construction Authority.

“This is an absolutely critical vote,” said Montclair Councilman Bill Ruh.

Ruh won’t have a say when the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments governing board votes on adding gap funding to allow construction of the $1.5 billion project to proceed to Pomona with completion by 2025. Also, the construction contract would include an option to continue building to Claremont and Montclair for completion by 2028, making it the first light-rail line in Southern California with stations in two counties. However, that leg needs about another $500 million — dollars not in hand.

Cities of Pomona and Montclair support extending the 31-mile light-rail, the longest in the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s system. The line operates from East Los Angeles to downtown L.A.’s Union Station, then goes northeast through Pasadena before terminating at Azusa Pacific University and Citrus College in Glendora. The Gold Line Construction Authority has bids in hand to build the line through Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona if it were to receive the gap funding, said authority CEO Habib Balian.

While the Gold Line — both the completed section from Pasadena to Azusa and the planned extension to Montclair — has often received unanimous support from the SGVCOG, the request from Metro and the Construction Authority to give up regional transportation funding has produced some murmuring. Metro’s board last month endorsed the $126 million transfer from a pot of $199 million awarded to the broader San Gabriel Valley as part of “equity” program funds from Measure M, a 2016 L.A. County half-cent tax measure approved by nearly three-fourths of the voters and controlled by Metro.

In a newsletter, Monrovia City Manager Oliver Chi wrote: “… the Measure M Equity Funds were an explicit promise to our region for future transit projects through FY 2057.” Chi also said the Construction Authority went to Metro without first asking the SGVCOG.

A report from SGVCOG Chief Engineer Mark Christoffels lists several future projects that are short of funding that could use the discretionary funds. They include improvements to Highway 71 in Pomona and Chino, listed as having a $101 million funding shortage, and reconfiguration of the 57-60 freeways interchange in Diamond Bar and City of Industry, which is short $122 million.

Former Claremont councilman, SGVCOG transportation committee chairman and long-time Gold Line supporter Sam Pedroza said the request would take from a discretionary fund that could be used when and if these other projects encounter shortfalls.

“It is pitting project versus project,” he said. Pedroza, who wants to see the Gold Line reach Claremont, now is the spokesman for the City of Industry, which has a huge stake in fixing the dangerous 57-60 interchange. “It hits home even though my heart is with the Gold Line.”

Pedroza summed up the choice the members of the SGVCOG will have to make: “Do we hold onto money for the unknowns or do we fund the ones we know now.”

Balian stressed that the Gold Line extension has regional benefits, not just to those foothill cities with stations. To curtail it by extending only so far as La Verne would be a loss of its capacity to move cars off the clogged freeways and onto the light-rail train, thereby reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and extreme weather.

“This is a regional project,” he said during an interview Friday. “People in Temple City ride our train. People in Rosemead ride our train. They go to Pasadena or Citrus College.”

If the train were to reach Pomona and beyond, developers would build more housing along the route, he added. Already the train has resulted in $1 billion in private investment in housing and commercial development, he said.

“The region benefits by connectivity. It makes sense for everybody,” Balian said. The contract will be awarded in a few weeks if the funding gap is approved. Without the money, the Construction Authority would have to start from scratch. “It could be a two-year delay. And prices are not going to do down,” he said.

Last November, the extension went out to bid in a perfect storm of tariffs imposed on imported steel by the Trump administration, a hot economy driving up wages, and a market flooded with proposed rail and transit projects in which bidders can set their own price.

Prices for steel and cement have been rising since the initial estimates and requests for proposals in 2016. A report from Kenneth Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America, points to rising material and labor costs as the main culprits.

In January, Metro said it would give the project an extra $97 million but the source of funding remained in doubt. The new bids raised the gap funding amount to $126 million. Two best bids continued the trend of rising costs in the construction industry.

With a limited workforce, Balian said it remains a “builders’ market” that can set prices to their advantage.