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Press Release
For immediate
release: Wednesday, November 3
(Oakland) In
passing over $4.5 billion in transportation
measures, Bay Area voters embraced plans that
support a broad range of transportation choices
to help people get out of their cars and
rejected plans that opponents described as too
focused on building highways. Voters showed the
strongest support for county sales taxes that
developed a political consensus among major
stakeholders through lengthy and inclusive
public processes.
"While many are
still forced to use their cars for most trips,
voters recognize that investing in
transportation choices is critical for our
quality of life and the environment," said
Stuart Cohen, Executive Director of the
Transportation and Land Use Coalition, a
collaboration of public interest groups whose
positions won the day on all five transportation
measures it campaigned on. "Bay Area voters
understand the need to be visionary."
Transportation
choices and strengthening the existing system
Successful plans
included several innovative ideas that may be
copied around the state. Contra Costa's Measure
J supports incentives for development near
transit stations and a "Safe Transportation for
Children" program, and ties nearly one-quarter
of its funding to growth controls.
Marin's Measure A
puts the majority of its money towards local
transit plus $36 million to an access to schools
program, which supports Marin’s landmark “Safe
Routes to Schools” program even pays for school
crossing guards at 70 busy intersections.
The support for AC
Transit's Measure BB and BART's Measure AA, both
of which are tax increases, demonstrates voters'
willingness to invest in our existing
transportation system. AC Transit backers
described the bus system as a basic necessity of
urban life, crucial to the mobility of hundreds
of thousands of daily riders. Support for AC
Transit is so strong that voters were willing to
increase and extend a similar tax that passed
just two years ago.
BART's measure,
which will help upgrade the Transbay tube and
elevated structures throughout the system to
withstand an earthquake, squeaked by with 68% of
the vote, a small but crucial 3% increase over
the vote total of a 2002 measure that failed to
receive a 2/3 vote.
Results around
the Bay
According to
unofficial results posted on county websites on
Wednesday morning, results with 100% of
precincts reporting were:
BART Measure AA:
68% Yes - PASSED
AC Transit Measure
BB: 72% Yes - PASSED
Contra Costa
Measure J: 71% Yes - PASSED
Marin Measure A:
71% Yes - PASSED
San Mateo Measure
A: 75% Yes - PASSED
Solano Measure A:
64% Yes - FAILED
Santa Cruz Measure
J: 43% Yes - FAILED
Sonoma Measure M:
66.7% Yes - TOO CLOSE TO CALL
NOTE: As of November 19, 2004, Measure
M passed with
67.2% Yes.
Presidential
election turnout crucial
Reinforcing a
long-term trend, large voter turnout in this
presidential election was instrumental to BART's
victory and others too. Since 1986, the vast
majority of successful Bay Area transportation
funding measures (with the exception of San
Francisco's sales taxes and AC's 2002 victory)
has passed during a presidential election year.
One measure -
Sonoma's Measure M - remains too close to call,
with only a 412-vote margin over the required
2/3 majority and many absentee ballots left to
be counted. Even this close call is a huge
increase for the county, where four previous
measures since 1990 have all failed to garner
even 60% of the vote.
Only consensus
plans succeed
The county
measures that passed - Contra Costa, Marin, and
San Mateo - all brought together multiple
stakeholders in processes that lasted over a
year to gather wide public input and iron out
differing views.
"When elected
officials bring together people representing all
interests in the county and work in good faith
to reach a consensus, transportation measures
have no problem getting the supermajority needed
to pass," said Jeff Hobson, TALC's Policy
Director who was involved in lengthy
negotiations over Contra Costa's Measure J.
"When agencies take time for public
participation, voters invest in transportation."
By contrast, in
Solano and Santa Cruz counties, public processes
could not achieve a consensus, environmental
groups and others mounted strong opposition, and
the measures failed. Opponents of Solano's
measure drew a sharp contrast between Solano,
whose Measure A pushed heavy highway funding but
had no ties to growth controls, and neighboring
Contra Costa, whose Measure J was much more
balanced and which tied nearly a quarter of its
funding to a precedent-setting "Growth
Management Program". Opponents said Santa Cruz's
Measure J would have put too much focus on
widening Highway 101 and not enough to
alternatives, and voters agreed.
Implications
for Santa Clara County and BART to San Jose
The fact that so
many transportation measures could achieve the
2/3 majority will take away much of the pressure
to reduce the voter threshold for transportation
measures. The biggest impact may be on Santa
Clara County, where some transportation
officials and business leaders have been
considering asking voters for a third
transportation measure to pay for extending BART
to San Jose. Combined with the growing chorus of
elected officials, newspapers, and a federal
agency questioning the wisdom of the project and
decision-making at the county's transportation
agency, this puts another nail in the coffin of
the multi-billion dollar project.
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Update:
10/4/04
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