Morgan Hill mayor casts vote in favor of BART sales tax; Mayor
Al Pinheiro votes no
Morgan Hill – South County’s united front on a new sales tax to bring BART to San Jose didn’t last.
Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy broke ranks and cast a vote in favor of the tax at a recent meeting of a key VTA subcommittee. While Kennedy endorsed the tax, Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro voted against it.
“I’m not ready to tell my constituents we need to put a quarter-cent sales tax on top of what they already pay,” said Pinheiro, a VTA board alternate. “Some of us feel there is still more work to be done. I think Dennis made that vote based on the way he looks at BART and maybe he thinks it’s an important part of [a regional transportation] concept.”
The VTA board will decide Feb. 2 whether to place the quarter-cent sales tax measure, to fund the $4.7-billion BART project and other transit improvements, on the November ballot.
Kennedy, one of 12 VTA board members, said he still hasn’t decided how he will vote. He suggested he will consider the opinion of the Morgan Hill city council and input from Pinheiro and Milpitas Councilman Bob Livengood. Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Milpitas share one VTA board seat. Livengood, who held the seat before Kennedy, is an avid supporter of the rail extension, which would run through his city.
Kennedy called his vote, made last week on the VTA Policy Advisory Committee, “meaningless,” and said it wouldn’t damage relations between Gilroy and Morgan Hill. He said his support was conditioned on the VTA providing extra bus and road improvements to South County.
“I view that action as not meaning a heck of a lot,” Kennedy said. “We will continue to work together.”
But it was the second time in four months Kennedy has voted to endorse the tax. And since his first vote, at the September 2005 policy advisory committee meeting, Kennedy has made several comments in opposition to the tax and has repeatedly stressed the importance of South County leaders speaking in a consistent, united voice.
In October, Kennedy, Pinheiro and Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage threatened to withhold support of the tax if it doesn’t provide additional Caltrain service, community busing and enhanced road repair to South County.
Two days before voting in favor of the tax, Kennedy signed a letter with Pinheiro, asking the VTA for more consideration of South County projects. Two weeks before his vote, Kennedy called the VTA’s financial plan for BART and other projects “too good to be true.”
The Morgan Hill City Council will adopt a position on the tax next week. Councilman Greg Sellers said that Kennedy must vote in the best interest of the city.
“The decision needs to be ours and not his,” Sellers said. “The concern I have is that there has not been a consistent message, there has not been a consistent path followed on this. You don’t become a player because no one knows where you stand.”
Kennedy said he’s been working to get commitments to South County projects from the VTA and build South County consensus for the agency’s spending plan.
“I’m trying to get support for projects that will benefit all of South County before we make a final determination on the quarter-cent sales tax,” he said. “We’re still fighting that battle and I think we’re making progress, especially in respect to Caltrain.”
If a tax measure is placed on the ballot and approved by two-thirds of county voters, it will be the second sales tax to fund BART. In 2000, county voters approved Measure A, a half-cent tax that took effect this year.
Voters were promised in 2000 that Measure A would provide enough money to build BART and a host of other projects, but the region’s sales tax revenue has fallen far short of expectations.
Until recently, even an additional tax was thought to fall short of the money need for BART and other projects. That uncertainty created a rift on the VTA board between San Jose and the county’s smaller cites that wouldn’t be served by BART.
In December, small city representatives, including Kennedy, banded together to delay a vote on placing the tax on the ballot until February, to allow for more negotiations on which projects would receive priority funding. Since then, the VTA has produced a new economic forecast that predicts strong, uninterrupted growth of sales tax revenue beginning in 2008.
That growth would add another $2 billion to VTA coffers and restore projects important to South County that had been scheduled for delay or deletion to the VTA construction plan. Those figures have been criticized by many as being overly optimistic and convenient panacea to the agency’s financial problems.
Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors will consider whether to support the tax.
Dennis Kennedy’s Views on Tax
– May 11, 2005: “Although we support a BART extension, we do not support it at the expense of projects that will benefit South County.”
– Sept. 9, 2005: Kennedy supports VTA policy advisory committee endorsement of the quarter-cent tax measure. He says a tax will pass only if it’s supported by the entire county.
– Oct. 28, 2005: Kennedy, Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro and Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage tell VTA they will not support a new tax unless South County receives more of its revenue in the form of:
– Additional Caltrain service
– Double tracking Caltrain to Gilroy
– Double funding for the South County pavement management program
– Schedule at least two major South County roadways for upgrades
– Create community busing programs in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
– Dec. 1, 2005: Kennedy votes to delay a decision on putting the sales tax on the November 2006 ballot. He says he doesn’t know if he will support the tax. He repeats his belief that the tax will pass only if it’s supported by the entire county and that South County politicians must stand together to have their voice heard by the VTA board.
– Dec. 27, 2005: Kennedy calls a VTA economic forecast that includes enough funding for BART and several South County improvements “too good to be true.”
– Jan. 10, 2006: Kennedy and Pinheiro write another letter to the VTA, asking for more consideration of South County projects.
– Jan. 12, 2006: Kennedy votes to endorse the VTA sales tax, with the qualifications that it provide community busing service and road improvements in South County.
– Jan. 18, 2006: Kennedy again questions the VTA calls his vote “meaningless” and says he doesn’t know if he will vote to put the tax on the November ballot.
