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| Santa Clara VTA | Riders Union |
Editor's note: today's workshop is held in one of the conference rooms near the pool. The Mediterranean Room, where these workshops are normally held, is holding some sort of ceremony. Let's take a dip into this workshop...
Gary Richards, traffic and transit reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, is in attendance. One other SCVTARU member, aside from our Founder (who has a cold) is in attendance.
A presentation was made about transit-oriented development and the need to develop it in Santa Clara County. One notable incident in the presentation regarding expansion of the Gilroy Transit Center: the narrator mentions how "transit in Gilroy becomes popular so we build parking" while a slide of a 3-story parking garage in Gilroy pops up. Tom Springer, Mayor of Gilroy and a VTA Board member, looks taken aback by this.
Later, Cindy Chavez, San Jose City Councilwoman and VTA Board member, laments over how some VTA employees - particularly bus drivers and mechanics - are not notified of public meetings and other VTA-related events. She requests staff to look into VTA email addresses for all VTA employees.
Another presentation is done by Scott Burher, the Chief Financial Officer of VTA. He mentions that local sales tax revenue is way down, and as a result, the VTA will need to trim certain portions (read: bus and light rail service cuts could be upcoming!) of its budget to compensate. Burher explained how 80% of VTA's bus and light rail operations budget comes from local sales taxes. Needless to say, we were surprised by this news. Most people like us thought the federal government subsidizes VTA operations.
The main highlight of the day is presented by Blanca Alvarado, Santa Clara County Supervisor and VTA Board member, expresses concern that the budget for the BART extension into Santa Clara County is now at $4.7 billion! (Remember when, in the fall of 2000, the VTA and the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group promised the whole BART extension would total $3.7 billion?) Alvarado recommended to VTA Staff that the BART extension should be built in stages instead of all-at-once, in an effort to save money.
Overall analysis: a casual observer would be left with the impression the VTA wants to waste as much money as possible, as soon as possible. That the BART extension into the County is now $1 billion over what was originally promised is cause for concern. All those "No on A" people who protested against the BART extension in the fall of 2000 are turning out to be right so far. The question over the summer will be: where are VTA's priorities - with BART or preserving the bus and light rail service? Time will answer that one...
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