Saturday, June 11, 2005
Gonzales Panicing
The Dispatch:
Gonzales says VTA can trim as much as $1 billion from its budget to devote to BART. Wow! Where is that money hiding? He suggests that it can be squeezed out by reworking current plans for BART and other projects.
This verifies the findings of the Santa Clara County grand jury report more than a year ago, which stated that VTA was grossly inefficient and needed a complete overhaul. But Gonzales has other plans. He wants his BART extension no matter what and believes that enough positive thinking on the part of VTA's employees will materialize in the form of a voter-apporved tax increase in 2006.
But he also knows that at the end of the year he will lose majority support for the extension into San Jose, because two of his BART supporters on the board will be replaced by less enthusiastic members from cities unlikely to benefit from BART. He is in a hurry to get the board to make an intractable commitment now before that happens.
"San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales wants the staff of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to draw up a new capital improvement plan and find more money to bring BART to San Jose.
In a memo distributed to his fellow VTA board members, Gonzales urged his colleagues to direct staff to formulate a plan that assumes a new sales tax...."
Gonzales says VTA can trim as much as $1 billion from its budget to devote to BART. Wow! Where is that money hiding? He suggests that it can be squeezed out by reworking current plans for BART and other projects.
This verifies the findings of the Santa Clara County grand jury report more than a year ago, which stated that VTA was grossly inefficient and needed a complete overhaul. But Gonzales has other plans. He wants his BART extension no matter what and believes that enough positive thinking on the part of VTA's employees will materialize in the form of a voter-apporved tax increase in 2006.
But he also knows that at the end of the year he will lose majority support for the extension into San Jose, because two of his BART supporters on the board will be replaced by less enthusiastic members from cities unlikely to benefit from BART. He is in a hurry to get the board to make an intractable commitment now before that happens.
Comments:
Post a Comment
