You will soon be bombarded with the election and campaign issues and the various measures which will be promoted on the November ballot.

 

One of these issues is Measure B, which is being touted as the solution to our traffic congestion in Santa Clara County. It may finally complete the BART extension to the South Bay after decades of debate.

 

According to Carl Guardino, Director of the Santa Clara Leadership Group and a proponent of Measure A, this project would resolve a lot of the traffic issues on our freeways.

 

However, like most public works projects, there is a cost involved. What is the cost? Quite frankly, it is difficult to know that.

 

If you recall we voted for a ½ cent sales tax increase in 2000, which was to solve the traffic issues, fund expansion of the Valley Transit Authority’s bus and rail service, and also provided some funding for BART operations and maintenance.

 

However, no one really seems to remember clearly that funds were to be allocated from that tax increase for BART. It appears that VTA has been running at a deficit which is greater than expected and it may be possible VTA has used some of those BART funds for their own operations and maintenance.

 

The new Measure B proposal is similar to the old Measure B proposal in that it asks for more funding. This measure proposes an additional 1/8 cent sales tax on top of the ½ cent sales tax we are already paying for transit.

 

Now it is hard to find many people that object to having BART completed into San Jose and Santa Clara.

 

It is a lot more difficult to find many supporters in this economy for another tax increase. Remember in 2006 voters put thumbs down on VTA’s measure for a tax increase and that was a more robust economy than current times.

 

Then there is the unanswered question about future needs. While Guardino assures his followers that independent studies show this tax increase will be adequate for needs of three to four decades into the future, current history is not proving that to be the case.

 

In December last year, a Mercury News editorial on this topic noted that VTA bus operations in 2006 were listed as the highest in the nation for an agency of its size. It appears that labor costs have been allowed to soar with some pretty radical work rules.

 

One observer commented that drivers only work about 1,250 hours a year compared to the average worker who labors over 2,000 hours annually.

 

Perhaps there is something we are missing in this proposal or perhaps there is something we are finding that raises concerns.

 

Currently VTA relies on 50% of their revenue coming form sales tax revenue. This is a difficult PR problem for VTA when taxpayers watch an empty double sized bus driving by with no riders.

 

It may be the question to be answered in regards to Measure B will be: “Who is really being taken for a ride?”