Valley Transportation Agency begins strategy to gain support for
new sales tax
San Jose – Politicians and transportation planners have begun crafting a public relations strategy for a new sales tax to bring BART to Silicon Valley, though it may prove impossible to sell voters the same transit projects a second time.
The working strategy consists of filling a new tax measure with the kind of broad promises made in 2000, when voters overwhelmingly approved Measure A, which offered BART and a variety of other transit projects, including more Caltrain service for South County. New proposals offer virtually the same package at a greater cost to taxpayers.
“There’s no question that this is more of an exercise in trying to look good than actually solve the problem,” Mountain View City Councilman Greg Perry said Thursday. “If the VTA can build all of the projects in Measure A, more power to them. It’s the least efficient transportation agency in California and doesn’t deserve another red cent.”
But for all the promises of Measure A, a new tax is needed to simply to avoid further service cuts, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage said Thursday. Measure A called for more Caltrain service to Gilroy, but since it passed, daily service has been cut by 40 percent. And Gage, who also sits on the VTA board, suggested that economic conditions make a new tax measure a long shot.
“Everybody and their kid brother is looking to put a sales tax measure on the ballot and the voters aren’t going to have it,” Gage said. “If they’re going to do it, it better have something for everybody or it’s never going to pass. In 2000, everyone had a job and the roads were gridlocked.”
So far, the proposal receiving the most support from politicians and the VTA is one from Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who says that the VTA can stretch tax revenue fund its share of the $5 billion BART project and deliver on other Measure A projects if it operates efficiently and is the beneficiary of a strong economy, more state funding, and a possible new tax on vehicle registrations.
Under those conditions, the SVLG plan would build BART by 2018, complete Caltrain electrification and provide $717 million for local streets and roads programs.
That plan was endorsed Thursday by the VTA’s policy advisory committee, which comprises officials from the county and its 15 cities, and will be taken up by the VTA board next week.
But even in prime conditions the proposal would actually decrease Caltrain funding, and it puts the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in the red by the year 2038, when all projects would be complete. And though its proposed quarter–cent sales tax would expire in 2037, the plan is predicated on convincing voters to accept another tax increase before that happens. The VTA’s internal assessment of the tax proposal says that voters won’t approve it unless they believe that it’s not permanent.
Perry was one of three officials to vote against endorsing a sales tax. He believes the only beneficiaries of a new tax are San Jose, Milpitas and Santa Clara, the three cities where BART would run. But South County officials agree that if there’s any hope of improving transit south of San Jose, a new tax is necessary.
Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy voted to endorse the quarter–cent tax measure, which the VTA projects would raise between $82 million and $301 million annually over its 30-year life.
“I believe to deliver the projects we need to move forward,” said Kennedy, who supports BART as long as the VTA will also fund additional Caltrain services in South County. Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro did not attend the meeting.
This fall, the SVLG will conduct polls to gauge voter support for a measure, which would appear on the November 2006 ballot. In a SVLG poll conducted in the spring, a quarter–cent tax received about 61 percent support, short of the two–thirds vote it would need to pass. A half–cent tax was roundly rejected.
Laura Stuchinsky, transportation director for SVLG, said the group hasn’t adopted a formal position on a tax, but Guardino has been lobbying officials to sell the idea to their constituents.
“If the conditions are right to mount a campaign for a quarter-cent transportation sale tax ballot measure in November 2006, we will need the leadership and guidance of thoughtful elected officials such as yourself,” Guardino wrote in an e–mail distributed to local politicians. “We hope you will join us in this effort.”
Online
For more information, go to www.caltrain.com
www.SVMG.org
www.vta.org
A copy of the VTA’s Additional Measure A Revenue & Expenditure Scenarios is available at
www.vta.org/inside/boards/packets/2005/09_sep/091605/3.pdf
