By Clarence Cromwell
If measures A and B on the Nov. 5 ballot win voter approval, they would bring more than $1 billion in transportation improvements--including street repairs and a light rail station in Los Gatos--around the county during the next nine years. Then again, opponents say, maybe they won't.
Measure B asks voters to approve a half-cent sales tax that would expire in nine years.
Measure A is an advisory measure that, if approved, will tell the county board of supervisors to spend the money on projects listed in the measure.
That would include the following:
* $90 million to patch potholes in every city in the county;
* construction of Capitol, Tasman and Vasona light rail stations;
* widening of highways 880, 101, 87 and 17;
* upgrades for the 237/880, the 85/101 and the 85/87 interchanges;
* a link between light rail and BART;
* synchronized lights on expressways;
* increased CalTrain service;
* safety improvements on Pacheco Pass, near Gilroy;
* expanded bicycle routes; and
* better transit services for seniors and the disabled.
Proponents say the road improvements are badly needed and unlikely to happen without Measures A and B.
The sales tax is the source of funding most likely to be supported by voters, according to Carl Guardino, government affairs manager for Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, currently on loan to the Citizens Coalition for Traffic Relief.
In the eyes of opponents, however, the package is too risky.
In the impartial analysis of the measure in the Voters Handbook, County Counsel Steven Woodside states that passage of Measure A does not guarantee that the county will use the sales tax money as voters advise.
"They can spend it on whatever they want, once it goes into that general fund," said Pat Shrum, executive director of the Santa Clara County Taxpayers' Association.
Shrum also said A and B authors were disingenuous to split the funding measure from the intended uses. If the projects had been listed within the tax measure, making it a special tax, Proposition 13 would require a two-thirds vote for passage.
"It's dishonest when you're trying to wiggle your way around the law and not giving people any certainty of what will be built," Shrum said.
Measures A and B are endorsed by Mayor Randy Attaway and councilmembers Steve Blanton and Joanne Benjamin.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 23, 1996.
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