GILROY
– Supervisor Don Gage used Gilroy City Hall Monday to kick off a
campaign to bring more federal and state transportation dollars to
Santa Clara County.
GILROY – Supervisor Don Gage used Gilroy City Hall Monday to kick off a campaign to bring more federal and state transportation dollars to Santa Clara County.
Gage wants city leaders and individual citizens to petition California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the State Legislature, President George W. Bush and the United States Congress for more transportation money.
“I’m not here tonight to ask for money, but I am asking for some action,” Gage said.
Gage handed out form letters to Gilroy City Council members at their regular Monday night meeting. Along with Carl Guardino, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, Gage plans to ask for the support of other city councils over the next few weeks.
The Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group is a conglomeration of some of the area’s most high-profile business leaders. The group’s Web site explains that it was founded on the premise that local employers should be actively involved in working with government to find innovative solutions to issues like transportation and housing, among other things.
The letter-writing will be accompanied by an advertising campaign aimed mainly at public transit users. The campaign – dubbed “We Deliver” – will place ads on buses, for instance, to drive home the message of what transportation improvements have been accomplished so far using county, state and federal funds.
Ads also will highlight the improvements the county hopes to make in the future, such as a traffic light at the dangerous intersection of Highway 152 and the driveway of Gilroy Foods, Gage said.
By raising sales taxes, the County of Santa Clara has raised $10 billion over the past 20 years for transportation improvements. One of the more high-profile changes has been the addition of four lanes to U.S. 101 from Cochrane Road in Morgan Hill to Bernal Road in San Jose.
Some of the money used to improve transportation in Silicon Valley came from federal and state coffers. However, with recession-era budgets the norm these days, federal and state pockets are getting tighter.
“We have to tell state and federal officials that we can’t do it all alone,” Gage said.
Gage said the federal and state governments are planning to withhold billions of dollars for transportation improvements related to BART expansion.
A fly-over off-ramp that would bring more direct access to St. Louise Regional Hospital from U.S. 101 also is in jeopardy, Gage said.
“We need $375 million just to fix the problems we already have,” Gage said. “If we don’t get the federal and state dollars, we just can’t do these projects.”
Gage did not have dollar figures regarding the cost of the advertising campaign readily available Monday night. However, the former Gilroy mayor said privately raised monies were supporting the “We Deliver” effort.
“This is not costing the county one dime,” Gage said.
