San Jose Mercury News
April 6, 2000

By GARY RICHARDS AND HALLYE JORDAN , Mercury News Staff Writers

Silicon Valley emerged as a big winner in Gov. Gray Davis' state transportation funding plan Wednesday -- three months after local leaders complained the governor had abandoned them.

More than $1 billion of the $5.24 billion proposal is headed to Silicon Valley, according to figures released by the governor's office Wednesday. Most of that money will be used to get solo drivers out of their cars, with nine of every 10 dollars headed for mass transit or carpool lanes.

''It's a start,'' said Pete Cipolla, general manager of the Valley Transportation Authority. ''I think it's recognition that this valley is the economic engine of the state and the United States.''

Not only has Davis proposed spending $760 million to extend BART and provide interim train service from Fremont to San Jose, but he's also earmarked millions more to extend commuter trains to Salinas, speed up Caltrain trips from San Jose to San Francisco and add more transit service to Gilroy.

Two of every three dollars aimed at the Bay Area goes to Silicon Valley. More than $900 million is headed directly to Santa Clara County, with an additional $100 million going for transit service carrying commuters into the valley from the Peninsula, East Bay, Central Valley and Monterey County.

The governor's proposal faces hurdles. He calls for using up to $3 billion in budget surpluses over the next four years, and that depends on the economy's continued vitality. His $2.2 billion bond must pass both the Legislature and a statewide vote. Lawmakers also will have their own ideas about which projects should be funded, and for how much.

State Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, said he will hold hearings this month to scrutinize Davis' plan, which he characterized in one sentence: ''The projects are good, but the funding is poor.''

REPUBLICAN CRITICISM

Assembly Republican leader Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach said the proposal didn't go far enough.

''The plan is like throwing a nickel at a problem that costs a dollar -- or more,'' he said. ''We need to be more visionary in dealing with this problem.''

Transportation officials across the state say billions more are needed to offset a $118 billion shortfall predicted for the next decade.

But Davis press secretary Michael Bustamante defended the governor's plan: ''Did the governor create congestion? No. Is he going to solve it? No. But this is certainly going to go a long way toward beginning to ease congestion.''

The governor's proposal uses a mix of bonds and surplus funds. Bustamante said for the BART-to-San Jose project, the governor envisions spending $275 million of state funds and $450 million in bonds. An additional $35 million already has been earmarked to acquire land for the right-of-way.

When the federal and local matching funds are included in the statewide plan, the governor's staff estimated it will provide a total of $15 billion worth of transportation improvements over the next several years. While other funding is not certain, this still represents the biggest infusion of cash since state voters approved a doubling of the gas tax in 1990.

Local transportation leaders greeted the proposal warmly.

''We can deliver near-term traffic relief,'' said Steve Heminger of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Oakland. ''The train stuff and express buses, all that can happen in months instead of years or decades.''

SURPRISE IN JANUARY

Davis stunned local officials in January when he announced he would not support a Burton bill to make it easier to pass county sales taxes for traffic relief. Those taxes have supplied most of the transportation improvements in the region and angry Silicon Valley leaders squared off with Davis in what officials described as ''very frank, candid conversations.''

Now, a shift may be in the wind.

Davis ''has told us that he is open to long-term funding sources at the local level,'' said Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group. ''I feel very confident he is going to address that.''

Most likely, said Guardino, that means accepting a measure allowing sales taxes to pass with a super-majority vote of 55 percent instead of the two-thirds threshold. Bustamante downplayed a possible switch by Davis, but Guardino was firm.

''We can't do 60 (percent),'' he said. ''But 55 percent might be an option.''

Davis will hold a briefing in San Jose today, then fly to North Hollywood for an afternoon event. On Friday, he'll pitch his budget proposal in San Diego and Fresno.

Some projects are years away, with BART to San Jose taking a decade just to reach construction. Others are preliminary studies. He is asking for $5 million to study building another bridge over San Francisco Bay, between the Bay Bridge and the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge.

Many improvements could be completed soon, with Davis agreeing to help fund road and transit lines already in the works.

For example, Santa Clara County is paying to widen Highway 101 to three lanes in each direction south of Bernal Road. The new state money would add a fourth lane for carpooling each way, with construction to begin next year.

100 MORE EXPRESS BUSES

And it calls for adding 100 express buses to operate in the region's growing network of carpool lanes, buses that could be in operation within a year or so.

Overall, Davis' plan shows his support for mass transit, with the majority of funding going for trains.

A big surprise is running Caltrain to Salinas, something local leaders were pressing to be added as late as Tuesday night.

Service to Gilroy would jump from eight trains a day to 20. The 90-minute trip from San Jose to San Francisco would be cut in half to 45 minutes. San Francisco's light rail would extend to Chinatown and along Ocean Avenue.

There's even $5 million to study high-speed rail from Southern California to Northern California, which Davis has been cool on.

Light-rail extensions would be funded in Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles.

The biggest chunk of aid is headed to Southern California, with Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties sharing $2.2 billion. The San Diego region gets $481 million and the Central Valley receives $518 million.

Missing, however, was money for a light-rail extension to East San Jose, a priority with local officials.


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