Uploaded: Tuesday, October 24, 2000

:Editorial: 'Measure A' is on track
Transit half-cent sales-tax extension plan deserves support; measure is flexible enough to encompass changing conditions

Measure A, the 30-year extension of a half-cent sales tax for Santa Clara County to pay for future transit measures, has generated intense debate, primarily because it includes an extension of BART into San Jose and Santa Clara.

But it also contains much more, including projects that will be of major benefit to the Midpeninsula.

The measure was placed on the Nov. 7 ballot by the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) last August, one day after the county Board of Supervisors failed to approve a broader plan for the sales-tax extension funds. The supervisors couldn't garner the four votes needed for a plan that included funds for highways as well as for transit, despite last-minute efforts by Supervisor Joe Simitian to construct a compromise package.

The VTA plan does not include funds for highways, although VTA officials are convinced they will be able to generate highway funds from other sources to make the needed improvements.

As we noted in mid-August, the issue became unnecessarily polarized due to heavy-handed tactics in support of the initial proposal to the supervisors by San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group. That plan was basically BART-to-San Jose plan with the VTA proposals tacked on.

Since then, the manufacturing group has endorsed the VTA measure and is working for passage of Measure A, but it no longer is in the driver's seat, so to speak.

The largest part of the VTA package also provides future funding for BART, some $2 billion that would be the county's share IF a future BART extension occurs, and is economically and politically feasible. That's a big if.

There are many questions that need to be answered, and county officials and others have vowed to ask them before the funds would be spent.

Another $200 million is included to provide BART and VTA connections to the San Jose International Airport, part of which would not be spent if BART is not extended.

But it also includes some $425 million for a desperately needed upgrade of the Caltrain system between San Francisco and Gilroy, including electrification; $35 million for a new "transit hub" at the train depot in downtown Palo Alto; $40 million as the county's share of a future possible "Dumbarton rail project" across the old railroad bridge; and a multitude of minor improvements to transit systems.

Some dedicated "rail" groups are fighting Measure A on the grounds that existing rail lines from the northeast of Santa Clara County can be upgraded to commute service. But neighbors of those lines have begun to be heard from with the literal "not in my backyard" response, and the volume of commuters they could carry is questionable compared to a BART extension.

Measure A has split area environmental organizations, both internally and between groups. But an impressive array of such groups has lined up against Measure A, which realistically means that it has small chance of garnering the two-thirds vote it needs for passage on Nov. 7.

The groups severely challenge the economics of the BART extension, raising some excellent concerns, and are pushing hard for a postponement of the issue until 2002. Because the existing transit sales tax does not expire for six years, they support Supervisors Blanca Alvarado's and Jim Beall's alternative plan for two years of community dialogue to achieve a community-based plan for transportation and housing. This process can and should continue with or without Measure A.

But as Simitian and both candidates for his supervisorial seat--Liz Kniss and Dolly Sandoval--have noted in their support for Measure A, it is easier to win approval for such items during a time of peak prosperity and at a large-turnout general election than a special election with smaller turnouts or--shudder--if there is an economic slippage or "confidence" dip.

Measure A is a good step in the right direction that provides needed assurance that our urgent transportation needs can be met over a long haul. If it doesn't succeed, we will need to find and fund something very much like it as soon as possible.