Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Call the bluff on Measure A tax

The Measure A half-cent sales tax on the June 6 ballot has something in it for everybody, which in many ways is a good thing.

If passed by the required simple majority vote, Measure A would sprinkle mega-dollars over virtually every responsibility of the county, including the Valley Medical Center, emergency services, children's services, family services and, finally, transportation.

But there is a catch built into Measure A, an unwritten "understanding" that up to half of the $5.2 billion or more that would be raised over the 30-year life of the tax would be spent on country transit projects, including the controversial BART extension to San Jose.

That is a catch that should raise a very large red flag for Mountain View voters, even those who are 100 percent supportive of helping the county shore up its finances to pay for highways, health care, child services and the Valley Medical Center.

The catch means that to get the good things in Measure A, you have to accept that the BART project is part of the package, whether you think it makes good transportation sense or not. Many suspect, but no one admits, that this "forced buy" strategy was cooked up by an alliance of BART supporters, including the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and county officials, who saw that they could help each other tremendously by combining forces on a half-cent tax that requires only a simple majority (rather than two thirds) to pass.

For the county, this meant that the SVLG would provide expensive and important political muscle and advertising to support the tax increase, which will put the county in a tie for the highest sales tax in the state.

More importantly, the deal is likely to give BART a good-sized share of the tax proceeds, without having to ask voters to approve it by a two-thirds margin. By including the "transportation" buzz word, the county is almost certain to win support of high BART-interest cities like San Jose, Santa Clara and Milpitas. And having help for BART in the package is just as likely to be overlooked by north and south county voters whose main interest might be in supporting county health and hospital services.

This approach of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" turns us off. Voters should get a clean shot at approving a quarter-cent county tax, without BART attached. By the same token, the VTA should have the courage to put its own quarter-cent tax on the ballot (it just passed a 30-year, half-cent tax in 2000 with more than 70 percent of the vote) to fund BART and other transportation projects, even if it requires a two-thirds vote to pass.

County Supervisor Liz Kniss sees it differently, saying that BART-to-San Jose is a fait accompli, and that voters should support Measure A now to help the county pay its bills. She and SVLC president Carl Guardino swear there was no back-room deal to funnel Measure A money to BART.

That may be true, but even if voters say no to Measure A, we'll bet Ms. Kniss a cup of coffee that the county and VTA will soon be back before voters, each with their own quarter-cent tax.

The sad part in this scenario is that there is real merit in the county's tax needs. And, for BART-to-San Jose supporters, there is no doubt that the project needs an additional financial boost.

Our problem is that these two needs have been combined in a deal that attempts to pull a fast one on the public. We urge Mountain View residents to vote no this time around. Measure A is a blank check that a two-thirds majority of the five supervisors can direct to any project they want, including BART. There are no guarantees whatsoever about how the money will be spent. We would like to see any additional financing for the BART project approved on its own merits.