All:

There is fighting among city councils outside San Jose and on the County's Board of Supervisors on how funding from 2016 Measure B is being proposed.  Two stories below detail how VTA proposes to redirect such funding away from street/highway repair to fund the BART extension into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara. 

Recall our group came out against Measure B back in 2016.

What are your thoughts on both of these stories? 

What do you think our group should do regarding what VTA proposes with 2016 Measure B funding?

Please discuss. -eugene

First story from from San Jose Spotlight over the weekend:

https://sanjosespotlight.com/measure-b-transit-spending-plan-for-santa-clara-county-comes-under-fire/

"This is a smorgasbord of ballot measures,” Howard Miller, former mayor of Saratoga, told supervisors. “To garner support throughout the valley, it has something on there for everyone."

Of all the projects on the ballot for Measure B, Miller said, the only item that polled higher than the required two-thirds vote to pass was funding for local street and road maintenance.

"My city and many other cities are dependent on money from the VTA in order to maintain our local streets and roads," Miller said. "It is going to be a challenging situation to fund BART, but from Saratoga’s perspective, it should not be funded on the backs of local streets and roads."

From last Friday's Mountain View Voice:

https://www.mv-voice.com/news/2020/12/17/santa-clara-county-supervisors-vote-to-oppose-bloated-spending-plan-for-bart

In the North County in particular, funding for county expressways and Caltrain grade separation were among the top priorities. Measure B earmarks at least $700 million for both priorities.

It was these carve-outs for projects unrelated to BART that got so many elected officials to sign on, said Supervisor Mike Wasserman, yet now it appears everything is being deprioritized in favor of BART.

"They were never told this money wouldn't be coming for 12 years," Wasserman said. "They were told that 75% of the tax dollars they were endorsing would be going towards those things."

Eugene Bradley
Founder & CEO, Silicon Valley Transit Users

http://www.svtransitusers.org/

phone (408)888-2208