Friday, June 17, 2005
Sacrifices and Service Cuts
Gilroy Dispatch | Up sales tax for BART:
But the difference between what can be saved through sacrifice and the total cost of the project, now projected to be $5 billion by Cipola, is immense. Gonzales is hoping to trim a hundred million here and a hundred million there without any thought to the likelihood that voters will turn down another sales tax hike, which would bring in perhaps $80 million per year.
With a 20% reduction in service how many will be laid off... again? Some have already been laid off twice. If Gonzales gets his way and the board continues denying reality, many more will be laid off in this third round. And VTA may never recover.
So far, VTA's board is in favor of Gonzales' proposal to move ahead with BART despite having no major sources of funding. He wants to sacrifice service and other projects, such as CalTrain electrification, to reduce the burden of paying for it.[Don] Gage... said he doesn’t believe voters will pass a sales-tax measure. And if they do, he said, the money will barely maintain VTA’s status quo.
“Without it, we might be looking at 20 percent service cuts,” he said.
But the difference between what can be saved through sacrifice and the total cost of the project, now projected to be $5 billion by Cipola, is immense. Gonzales is hoping to trim a hundred million here and a hundred million there without any thought to the likelihood that voters will turn down another sales tax hike, which would bring in perhaps $80 million per year.
With a 20% reduction in service how many will be laid off... again? Some have already been laid off twice. If Gonzales gets his way and the board continues denying reality, many more will be laid off in this third round. And VTA may never recover.
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