In the fours years since Santa Clara County voters
overwhelmingly agreed to tax themselves to pay for a BART extension
linking San Jose to the East Bay, the proposed transit line is
doing a better job of dividing people than it is bringing them
together.
In the fours years since Santa Clara County voters overwhelmingly agreed to tax themselves to pay for a BART extension linking San Jose to the East Bay, the proposed transit line is doing a better job of dividing people than it is bringing them together.
Today, county supervisors are expected to join a growing chorus recommending that the Valley Transit Authority scale back its ambitions and explore a BART extension that ends in Milpitas rather than stretching to Mineta San Jose International Airport and downtown.
And rumors are flying that San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, who is decidedly in favor of the full extension, is said to be behind an effort to oust VTA General Manager Pete Cipolla, who has presided over the VTA since its inception about 10 years ago.
Cipolla is going through his annual review process, and there is speculation that his job is at risk as the VTA comes under increasing criticism for a series of service cuts and delays in new projects, all stemming from funding shortages, which have now put BART at risk.
If BART is scaled-back or eventually abandoned, South County residents have the most to gain. The price tag for the entire project is in excess of $4 billion, and a Milpitas line would cost the VTA about $2 billion.
Presumably, any money not spent on BART can be shifted to projects with more direct bearing south of San Jose, but Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage cautioned against leaping to conclusions about how the money would be spent.
“We would have more money for other transit projects, but that’s really up to the voters,” Gage said. “You need to go back to the voters and ask if they want the money to go toward other projects.”
Gage, who is also chairman of the VTA Board of Directors, called the speculation about Cipolla’s status “disgusting.”
“This whole thing was conjured up and it’s been blown way out of proportion,” Gage said. There’s been no discussion about firing him. He’s not going to be fired Thursday.”
The VTA board will discuss Cipolla’s future in a closed session Thursday. Gonzales, who is also on the VTA board, said Monday that he can not comment on the process. San Jose has five officials on the 12-member board.
The board’s agenda states that it will also adopt a tentative BART extension plan Thursday, but that is not going to happen, Gage said.
“We don’t have the financial information we need; we don’t have any state or federal financing in place; we don’t know any of the costs pertaining to operations and maintenance,” he said. “There won’t be a decision.”
But the supervisors will decide today how its representatives on the VTA board – currently Gage and Pete McHugh – will vote on the BART plan when it comes up for final consideration, and all signs point to a “no” vote on the downtown extension.
“Nobody is saying that BART is a bad project, but there are signs we can’t bite off this much at this point,” Jane Decker, deputy county executive, said Monday. “What we’re recommending, and what a majority of the supervisors are concluding, is that the VTA should find a way to do the project in phases.”
So far, the VTA has not studied an alternative, shorter line, a failure that Supervisor Liz Kniss called “regrettable” at a public hearing last month. At that same meeting, the board directed County Executive Peter Kutras Jr. to produce a position paper on BART that he will deliver at today’s meeting.
The paper is clear in its opposition to an immediate downtown BART project. Halting the project, it says, will save $2 billion in construction costs, tens of million in operating expenses, and improve the county’s chances to secure additional federal funding for the project.
BART is falling victim to an economic environment radically different then when Measure B was passed in 2000. Silicon Valley’s economic slump has cost the county about $2 billion in sales tax revenue, and the nation’s economic downturn has jeopardized more than $1.6 billion in state and federal funding.
“The bubble burst and everything has changed,” Decker said. “In addition to the impact on sales tax revenue, there were other legitimate projections that don’t look like they’re going to be realized.”
Decker said stalled development in downtown San Jose caused the Federal Transit agency to cool on the BART project. To be viable, the downtown line would need to carry 70,000 to 80,000 passengers day, an unlikely prospect with office vacancies standing at 22 percent.
“The Transit Agency has said that they don’t see a demonstration that the ridership is going to be there,” Decker said.
David Vossbrink, a spokesman for Mayor Gonzales, said Monday that the need will be there by the time any BART project is complete.
“Downtown San Jose continues to make excellent progress as a destination for culture and entertainment, a downtown for Silicon Valley, as well as an excellent urban neighborhood,” Vossbrink said. “BART will be an integral feature of [San Jose and Silicon Valley], especially as it ties into light rail and the rest of our regional transit system.”
