Politics

GILROY—A pay-as-you-go express lane on Highway 101 might be funded by a sales tax hike aimed at raising as much as $2 billion for county transportation improvements, according to a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority plan.

GILROY--Gavilan Community College trustees have supported making changes to the way voters elect them, a trustee confirmed.

GILROY—While the Gilroy portion of the California High-Speed Rail System will be one of the last built in the $68 billion system, city officials and a consulting firm are steaming ahead with environmental planning for a station downtown Gilroy or on prime agricultural land in east Gilroy.

GILROY—The second-annual South County Legislative Summit was a who’s-who of elected officials that included U.S. Congress representatives and South County mayors pro tem.

GILROY—The Gilroy City Council Monday reversed its own planning commission and rejected a long-planned housing project.

GILROY—More than 4,400 rural residents in Santa Clara County, nearly half in South County, will open mailboxes in May to find bills for a controversial fire protection fee levied by Cal Fire, the state’s fire fighting arm.

GILROY—The hundreds of homeless residents who sheltered in Gilroy’s National Guard Armory are out in the cold, as the building was closed for the season this week.

GILROY—Downtown Gilroy’s more than decade-long struggle to fill empty storefronts may have reached an all-time low—nearly one in three stores are vacant, according to a city survey.

GILROY—A united Gilroy City Council voted unanimously Monday to uphold a planning commission denial of a 23-unit, two-story housing project proposed on land next to Gilroy High School.