Published Thursday, November 9, 2000

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
TIMES STAFF WRITER

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With a fat ballot-box directive, Santa Clara County voters sent an unmistakable message to BART on Tuesday: Roll those trains on down to San Jose.

Voters in this affluent center of the high-tech world plunked down serious money for a BART extension, approving a 30-year, half-cent sales tax to raise $2 billion for BART and $4 billion for other transit projects.

Few expected the controversial measure to win.

Historically, such taxes in California lose. It's been nearly impossible to get the necessary two-thirds vote.

Nearly 20 attempts have been made throughout the state since the 1980s, and until Tuesday all but two had failed. Measure A, however, got an astonishing 71 percent.

"Yes, people told us it couldn't be done," said Carl Guardino, director of the powerful Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group. "But we had three key ingredients: terrible traffic, a great plan and visionary voters."

BART to San Jose is now on the fast track.

Combined with $725 million from the state surplus and $165.5 million in Alameda County's Measure B -- the second transportation tax to win in the Bay Area on Tuesday, with 80 percent of the vote -- the extension has $2.9 billion and serious financial momentum.

"This money gives the extension a big leg up, no question," said Steve Heminger, deputy director for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "If you have a high percentage of local and state dollars on the table, you stand a far better chance of competing for scarce federal dollars."

BART, Bay Area elected leaders and the extension's top advocate, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, talked by phone Wednesday and plan to start negotiations within the month.

"If the people of Santa Clara County are willing to tax themselves $2 billion, I think it's critical for the BART board to roll up its collective sleeves and figure how we are going to get this done," said BART Director Dan Richard of Walnut Creek. "We've been given a very clear mandate from the public, and it wants BART."

But getting BART to San Jose faces serious challenges, warned Richard.

Even with $2.9 billion, this project is far from paid for.

Construction alone could cost more than $4 billion and operating costs are in the millions of dollars a year.

Critics such as the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition believe it will be tough to find the rest of the money.

"We're worried that other transit programs will be sacrificed for this high-profile project," said coalition director Stuart Cohen. "It's going to be really difficult to get federal money for this project, especially under a (George W.) Bush administration, so it's going to have to come from somewhere."

Another financial unknown is being generated by a powerful core of elected officials in Contra Costa, Alameda and San Francisco who insist Santa Clara County must pay a buy-in fee to join BART.

The taxpayers in the three BART counties have been paying for nearly four decades, and they say it isn't fair for Santa Clara to come late to the party and never pay a dime for the core system.

"We will continue to fight for a fair BART buy-in," said Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch. He won election to the state Senate on Tuesday. "I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to negotiate a fair deal."

Torlakson wants the buy-in money to be used to help build two East Bay extensions, an idea that has generated considerable support from Antioch and Livermore.

These cities say they were promised extensions when they voted to pay BART taxes all those years ago.

Livermore Mayor Cathie Brown says her city's chances of getting an extension are greater now that Measure A has passed.

"We need to make this happen," she said. "Our goal is to get workers to their jobs."

Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and growth. Reach her at 925-228-6179 or lvorderbrueggen@cctimes.com.