Just a few weeks before the election, VTA presented an economic study in an attempt to get votes.
The economic study can be deceiving, especially as VTA continues to withhold updated cost estimate for the BART project:
- According to the study, only 5.7% of the personal income of out-of-county workers who use the extension would be spent in Santa Clara County, basically from workers buying meals (lunches) in our county. It shows how little they will contribute through sales taxes to a project that would primarily benefit them. SVLG, the main …

Learn how Measure B would put VTA bus and light rail service at risk.

In 2000, proponents said a $6-billion tax was enough. The judge threw out this sentence from our rebuttal because although we referred to “proponents”, he said that we hadn’t proved that VTA itself had said this. Well, we actually had proof that VTA asserted this also, but because of the way in which our opponents challenged us, we weren’t allowed to submit the evidence that we had on hand. Here’s the proof we wanted to submit to the judge.
Oct 2000 Articles from the Palo Alto Daily and Mercury News

VTA memo …

VTA tried to counter this claim (beginning p. 4 of pdf) with all kinds of misleading statements and a paper dump. They tried to assert that they provided the following new services: the DASH shuttle, more light rail service, more Caltrain service, the MST 55 bus, the 522 and Los Gatos and line 88 Community bus,  and the whole bus system overhaul through the Comprehensive Operations Analysis (COA) that was implemented this year, and paratransit.
Well, real transit advocates like us know the truth:

The DASH downtown shuttle is not “new” service.  …

Check out page 7 of Exhibit A. Specifically, this quote by Carl Guardino that the 2000 Measure A proponents included in their Rebuttal to Argument Against Measure A:
“We get BART and traffic relief by extending–not increasing–our sales tax. Measure A pays operating costs for BART, rail, and buses for decades without additional taxes.”-Carl Guardino, CEO , Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.
Our Rebuttal argument read, “Proponents aren’t being truthful. In 2000, they said the $6-billion tax would be enough.”
We said “proponents”, and that’s what the word “they” refers to, not VTA specifically. …