Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said Tuesday he’s not inclined to
support a new sales tax to extend BART to San Jose because he
doubts the tax will benefit South County.
Morgan Hill – Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said Tuesday he’s not inclined to support a new sales tax to extend BART to San Jose because he doubts the tax will benefit South County.
“I have my own reservations whether I want to support the tax, period,” Pinheiro said. “I want to be as regional as I can because that is the way I need to approach it as a VTA member, but as mayor, I need to look out for Gilroy.”
Pinheiro is an alternate director with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, an agency that wants to pass a new quarter-cent sales tax to pay for the $4.7-billion BART project and a host of other transit projects in the county.
Like other South County politicians, Pinheiro has grown increasingly critical of the VTA in recent months, saying the agency has sacrificed the interests of the rest of the county to build BART.
Now, weeks before the VTA is to vote on a spending plan for a new tax, Pinheiro has joined Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy and Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, both VTA directors, in an effort to bring what they call geographic equity to the transportation agency. The trio says voters will approve a new tax in November only if they can be sure they will receive its benefits.
“We need to make sure that our issues, if we’re going to have any chance of getting support for the sales tax, we have to make sure there’s truly something that benefits South County,” Kennedy said.
Currently, the VTA’s tax proposal, which is estimated to raise between $5.1 billion and $6.5 billion in its 30-year life, includes little funding earmarked specifically for South County aside from $100 million for Caltrain improvements.
South County could benefit from some countywide programs, including a share of $50 million intended for senior and disabled services, a possible bus rapid transit line between Morgan Hill and San Jose and, perhaps, from still undetermined increases in bus service, according to VTA sources.
But Pinheiro, Kennedy and Gage want more. The mayors want more bus service within their cities and new options for residents who have to travel north. Gage wants a larger share of a pavement management program promised by the new tax. They all want more Caltrain service.
“I think community busing would be good in Gilroy and Morgan Hill,” Kennedy said. Buses that work better to get our residents where they want to go, to jobs and shopping and medical services. The big buses they have on fixed routes don’t do the best job.”
For months, Kennedy has been calling for reverse commute Caltrain service in addition to more morning and evening trains, which he says would benefit South County residents and businesses.
“If you took the train north today to work in Palo Alto and need to come home early, there’s no way to get home until the first train in the evening,” Kennedy said. “It’s been an issue with companies that have employees who live to the north who would like to get a train or even an express bus to Morgan Hill, an alternative to their cars.”
Tuesday, Gage engineered a delay of a vote by county supervisors on the tax. Several supervisors are inclined to not support it, and Gage hopes that with more negotiating time, county leaders and VTA directors will find consensus on a plan that pleases all parties.
“I need tools to negotiate,” Gage said, adding that time is running short to craft a plan that will gain broad support. The supervisors will vote on the plan Jan. 24. The VTA board will decide Feb. 2 whether to place a tax measure on the November ballot.
And almost no one has been impressed by the VTA’s latest economic forecast. Two weeks ago, the VTA announced that Silicon Valley’s economy will rebound strongly in coming years and generate enough sales tax revenue to build BART and numerous other transit projects first promised to voters in 2000, when they approved the half-cent tax of Measure A.
Kennedy has called the new projections “too good to be true,” a point echoed by Pinheiro.
“To me, all of a sudden out of the hat comes these extra funds,” Pinheiro said. “We can’t hang our hat on that. It’s too much ‘what if.’ It’s almost being tailored to accommodate everybody so everybody will support it. But in the end, if it doesn’t happen, the big boys will get BART and we’ll be left in South County because we don’t have the numbers and we don’t have the power. We’re going to be left out to dry.”
Matt King covers Santa Clara County for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7240 or mk***@************ch.com.
Projects in Proposal
– Additional Caltrain tracks for as many as 10 trips a day by 2010
– Caltrain electrification
– A share of $800 million over 30 years for street and road repair
– Unspecified bus service expansion
– New senior and disabled services
Al Pinheiro’s Wish List
– Community busing; more bus service in neighborhoods; different routes
– Express buses to San Jose
– Additional Caltrain service
– Improvements to at least two of South County’s major roadways
Dennis Kennedy’s Wish List
– Community busing; more bus service in neighborhoods; different routes
– Restore bus service to pre-2000 levels
– Additional Caltrain service; reverse commute trains
– Connect Butterfield Boulevard with Watsonville Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard
Don Gage’s Wish List
– More Caltrain service
– Substantial increase in street repair funds
