The Loma Prietan
November 2000
No on Measure A
by Irvin Dawid
Sixteen years ago, Santa Clara County made Californian history
by placing the first transportation sales tax on the county ballot. As
a new county resident, I can still recall what led me to vote in favor:
The freeways were packed, and funds from state and federal governments
simply weren't enough to solve the problems. However, the Sierra Club
opposed the tax. More than most voters, its leaders understood that
widening existing freeways and constructing new ones would, in the long
run, only exacerbate the congestion problem. As usual, the Club was
ahead of its time, but most voters, like me, chose to support it.
Fast forward 16 years to today and the Club finds itself in a very
similar, though seemingly opposing, situation. We are presented with a
"transit-only" sales tax ballot proposal, promising the same, universal
"traffic relief". In fact, of the six transit projects listed, we can
definitely support five, three of them unequivocally and even
enthusiastically. The dilemma we are faced with, however, is that we
are unable to support the first and most expensive project: to connect
the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) from Fremont to Milpitas, San Jose,
and Santa Clara.
The magnitude and cost of the $3.8 billion BART project is such that
it
threatens not only the other five, but also all existing transit
services in Santa Clara county.
But let's step back a moment and consider how we got into this
unpalatable fix of having to oppose a transit-only sales tax.
The situation began to unravel as recently as June 27, 2000, when
the
Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, at the urging of Ron Gonzales, mayor
of San Jose, asked the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors (SCBOS) to place
an advisory measure, accompanied by a half cent sales tax, on the
November ballot, primarily to fund the BART to Santa Clara project. (If
supported by the Supervisors, the Measure would have needed only a
simple majority to pass.) The project was "balanced" with road and other
transit projects, but the lion's share of the sales tax was then, as
previously, to fund the BART project.
Never before in the county's political history has a measure ever
been
rushed to the ballot as quickly and forcefully as this one.
On August 8, the SCBOS failed to secure the four votes needed to put
the tax on the ballot. Supervisors Jim Beall and Blanca Avarado
correctly recognized the hasty manner in which the plan was put
together. Instead, they called for a "Smart Growth Planning Process",
with the goal of putting an interlocking transportation, land use, and
affordable housing measure on the November 2002 ballot.
Unfortunately, that motion was not voted on but was sent to committee
for further discussion. Incredibly, the Valley Transportation Authority
(VTA) was already planning to meet the very next day and vote to do
exactly what the SCBOS refused to do. (Only Supervisor Blanca Avarado
voted against the proposed measure.) However, the transit district
could not include road projects in the measure, which also requires at
least two-thirds voter approval.
On August 29, without public participation, the VTA called a special
meeting to reallocate all state and federal transportation revenues for
the next 36 years to road projects in order to assure voters that their
highway needs would be met. Such a decision, which omits rail, bus and
other forms of public transformation, is likely to have dire
consequences for Santa Clara county's overall transit system. Instead
of taking a regional, long-term approach, the political forces at work
show how reckless and desperate they are to fund the BART extension.
The most important message the Sierra Club wishes to convey is that
Measure A is all about politics, not about transportation. Measure A
will not take effect until April, 2006, giving us time to do the
requisite planning that will compare bus, light rail, and commuter rail
for the Fremont-South Bay corridor. We can use this time to analyze
alternative alignments, station locations and technologies. We will
prepare a preliminary environmental review, and most important of all,
we will engage the public in the process. The VTA has done none of the
above; all it carried out was a "fast-track" study with the sole
purpose of updating costs and ridership to assess project feasibility.
The study provided information only to "elected policy makers," not to
the general public who were expected to be impressed and satisfied with
the San Jose Mercury's polling information that shows how we are all
enamored with the VTA's project. Apparently, our elected leaders felt
nothing else was necessary.
The Sierra Club strongly opposes Measure A. We insist that a Major
Investment Study be undertaken on the Fremont-South Bay corridor and the
results published BEFORE voters commit to a 30 year expenditure plan.
Others may choose to politicize transportation projects. We prefer to
study them, subject them to thorough analysis, and above all, bring the
public into the process. By not doing so, we may well have a transit
disaster on our hands by the time Measure A reaches its mid-life, if
not earlier. We have six years left on the 1996 Measure B, so why not
begin the planning process now for our transportation needs in 2006 and
beyond?
If you would like to support the Sierra Club in defeating
Measure A, contact:
Irvin Dawid 650-853-0558 (h), 650-496-7439 (w) or
Bill Michel 650-965-8456 (h), 510-574-5417 (w),
Bill Michel at work.
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