The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has delayed a
decision on whether to place a sales tax to extend BART to San Jose
on the November ballot, and a new Silicon Valley Leadership Group
poll shows that the measure may fail.
The VTA board was set to vote on the ballot measure next week,
but that vote has been rescheduled for March 2.
San Jose – The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has delayed a decision on whether to place a sales tax to extend BART to San Jose on the November ballot, and a new Silicon Valley Leadership Group poll shows that the measure may fail.
The VTA board was set to vote on the ballot measure next week, but that vote has been rescheduled for March 2.
It’s the fourth delay. Previously, the vote had been set for November, December, and February.
The delay is more evidence that the politicians on the VTA board have not reached agreement on a spending plan for the tax or found the consensus needed to persuade two-thirds of county voters to support the quarter-cent tax, which would be the second sales tax in six years to finance BART.
“There are a whole gamut of questions,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, who also sits on the VTA board. “It’s such an important thing, I think we ought to do it right. This is for 30 years. If you screw it up, then you’ve really got troubles.”
Gage said the poll, taken by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business consortium and strong BART supporter, revealed that a VTA tax would fail if another sales tax measure being considered by the county appears on the same ballot. Gage said he has not seen the poll, but was told by the leadership group of the findings.
The county’s own polling showed that a sales tax to support healthcare and other social services would pass.
There is some chance the county and VTA could propose a joint tax measure.
Tuesday, a divided board of supervisors delayed a vote on the VTA sales tax until Feb. 28. Morgan Hill city councilmen will vote on the tax Wednesday night.
The Gilroy city council will discuss it this weekend. VTA spokeswoman Jayme Kunz said the delay will give the VTA more time to develop a spending plan that will appeal to different regions in the county. The VTA has until to August to place a measure on the November ballot.
“We want as much time as possible to collect feedback from local jurisdictions,” Kunz said. “We need time to digest all of the feedback we’re getting and determine if there are appropriate places we can make changes.”
Several members of the VTA board have threatened to not support the tax if it doesn’t address a number of transportation needs in addition to the $4.7-billion BART project.
The VTA recently released a new economic forecast that promises enough money to build BART and a number of projects previously threatened with delay or extinction, including Caltrain improvements for South County.
But that forecast has been widely doubted. Both Gage and Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy, also a VTA board member, have said they don’t think it will hold up.
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business consortium and strong BART supporter recently conducted polling on the tax measure, but has not officially released the results. Last year, a poll found the tax would fall a few points shy of the necessary two-thirds support.
