Promise the usual politician a piece of the pie and that politician will support almost anything. Try to tax corporations and see what happens.

I'm quite skeptical of these numbers: $1 billion for "county expressways", but $500,000 each for "roads and highways" and "congestion management"? Is it understood that $1 billion is 2,000 times as much as $500,000? The latter isn't enough to draft an EIR for one new crosswalk. I strongly suspect that $500 million has been incorrectly downgraded to $500,000.

@arithmetician, some of the numbers in this article are indeed off by a factor of 1,000. The VTA's EnvisionSV website has more information about the allocations they are considering: Web Link

Very illuminating to look at the roster of VTA's ad hoc committee "Envision Silicon Valley"

Web Link

The Committee’s purpose is to examine the transportation needs of Silicon Valley and guide the creation of a potential transportation ballot initiative.

... not a single representative from North County.

BART and Caltrain are a waste of money: expensive, inefficient systems that don't go where people want to go.

Improve highways and expand bus service instead.

Tax payers have given and given and given again to VTA and they have nothing to show for it. At least caltyrain is ;packed each morning. Empty busses or packed trains, you tell me which is working better.
No more endless taxing by VTA! We've gone that route many times.
This time I'm voting no.

Here comes Carl Guardino and merry band of crony capitalists at the grossly misnamed “Silicon Valley ‘Leadership’ Group,” hoping to sucker those of modest means into raising their taxes once again, despite the fact that voters have already done so multiple times. Over the last several elections, voters in Santa Clara County have passed multiple tax and fee increases including VTA’s 2000 Measure A ½-cent and 2008 measure B ¼-cent sales taxes, Santa Clara County’s Measure A 1/8 cent sales tax, the state prop 30 ¼ cent sales tax and the 2010 Measure B Vehicle Registration Fee of $10. Additionally, we’re on the hook to pay back numerous state bond issues including high speed rail, last year’s Proposition 1 water bond and the infrastructure bonds of 2006.

Before increasing taxes YET AGAIN, waste needs to be removed from transportation projects. For example, VTA needs to eliminate waste and “gold plating” of the BART extension’s cost by reducing the scope to eliminate duplicate facilities. Specifically, a revised “build alternative” needs to be added to the study that eliminates the duplicative and wasteful section between the San Jose and Santa Clara Caltrain stations. The BART segment from the San Jose to Santa Clara Caltrain stations would duplicate both the existing Caltrain line and VTA’s 22 and 522 buses to a station that has approximately 1000 riders each weekday. This is extremely wasteful.

Why don’t the wealthy high-rollers in the “Leadership Group” suggest taxing their rich companies and leave the little guy alone for a change?

You can add as many projects as you like to the list.

They didn't built the north county projects from the 2000 ballot measure or the 2008 measure. What on earth makes you think they will build the north county projects on the 2016 measure?

Unfortunately, VTA has a long history of going in its own direction and ignoring input from Santa Clara County residents and their city governments. BART to San Jose, and BRT are VTA's priorities.

I appreciate that Palo Alto is getting specific about what they want to achieve. We have a lot of transit projects that need funding in Mountain View. Can we get a commitment to fund them?

No more money for BART. It's not our fault that 80% of our transit money wasn't enough for them. It's a poorly thought out extension that doesn't impact the Peninsula whatsoever.

I was very suspicious about $500 million dedicated to the phrase "transportation-demand management" so I Googled it. It's deliberately vague Big Brother bureaucratic code phrase that means "Force people out of their cars and onto grossly inferior and inconvenient public transit, whether or not they want or need it."

The VTA's crazed and politically incorrect obsession to ruin El Camino Real and other main arteries with dedicated bus and van lanes is a perfect example of TDM at its worst. If the VTA is allowed to have its way, it would add many wasted hours per week to many peoples' commutes to industrial and govt jobs, most of which are far away from El Camino Real and which would require one or more bus transfers to reach and leave. Add the time to walk to and from El Camino Real and your jobs, and you have a real commuting nightmare --- as bad or worse than San Francisco.

Do our abusive VTA Big Brother bureaucrats care? Not a bit, as long as they can collect their grossly excessive salaries, benefits, and gold plated pensions --- some well in excess of $100,000 per year with retirement at age 60 or thereabouts. Compare that to Social Security!!! [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

@No TDM or Big Brother Fat Cats -
Thanks very much for explaining your dystopian worldview to us, and your extensive research of TDM based on a Google search.

It's interesting because when I Google "TDM Santa Clara County" (which is quite relevant, given we're talking about a possible tax measure for the county, right?) one of the top ten hits I find is this presentation: Web Link
which talks about the TDM program at Stanford University and how it has given students and staff a ton more options for how to get to campus, reduced the percent of employees driving alone to campus from 72% to 47% in 12 years, stabilized commute-related CO2 emissions at 1990 levels despite an increasing commuting population, and avoided over $150M in parking construction costs.

[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]
Stanford's TDM program has taken cars off the road so that when YOU drive down El Camino, there are FEWER CARS than there otherwise would have been. So it turns out that this obviously Big Brother-ish, Commie TDM thing has actually benefitted you as a driver. Quite ironic, isn't it?

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[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language].

As for the VTA's latest proposal, it is a fact that they have not honored their past pledges to update/improve transportation options in the North County. I will vote NO on giving them another dime of tax money - and will encourage others to vote the same until we can clean house and have a truly representative VTA. Current members have shown they cannot be trusted.

I'm glad that BART will continue to expand and that we will have rapid bus service on El Camino. Any and all problems that VTA Projects have experienced are due to special interest NIMBY's that sabotage the project by getting changes made that lower the value.

Light rail would have been fast and popular were it not for this politicking that messed with the routes and technology. If we actually let our transit professionals build the projects they recommend, we would have amazing public transportation options.

Most of my neighbors here support VTA, so I'm so glad that MV voted their approval!

Oh stop it. VTA has been exposed due to its total failure at trying to complete even the most simple projects including the failed attempt at BRT in SJ.
They need to cool their jets. We already are paying TWO separate taxes to VTA. They do not need a third. Have you seen how much they pay their executives?!?!

Vote NO to this THIRD tax they want to place on us.
It's time to make VTA hit the reset button and clean their broken house before they ask us for additional funding

Agreed, solid NO on any more taxes to VTA. I went up and down ECR yesterday from 4-6pm, the majority of busses were almost empty, certainly less than 10 people per bus. EVERY SINGLE BUS. Where is this great ridership you supporters refer to? There aren't even enough riders to cover the cost of the driver. Increased busses are not a viable, sustainable option. We are Silicon Valley, we should be able to come up with a better solution than a failed bus system for gods sake!