JURISDICTION: Santa Clara County: Regional Measure 2, March 2, 2004

ARGUMENT AGAINST REGIONAL MEASURE 2

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2004

Taxes are high enough now to accommodate reasonable needs, including transportation projects. Each year, as is, "Americans spend more money per capita on taxes ($10,447) than on food ($2,713), clothing ($1,436), and shelter ($5,913) combined"
[San Francisco Chronicle, March 27, 2002].

Continuing bridge-toll increases represent another broken promise by politicians. "When state officials opened the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936, they
promised drivers a free crossing after 20 years, when construction bonds were paid off." ("Bridge Tolls to Double… Free Passage Promise Now Long Forgotten," Alameda Newspaper Group, 12/26/97).

"[A reckless, last-minute] measure to hike Bay Area bridge tolls by $1… throws around enough pork to stir up the region's most notorious shark-infested waters…."

For example, an Alameda developer and ferry operator who's "contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bay Area politicians" promoted the ferry upgrades…. 1998's
Bay Area toll increase from $1 to $2 was supposed to be temporary; this new measure
would further escalate tolls, and spend the take in irresponsible ways. ("Bridge Toll Hike
Extends Saga of Fishy Funding," Oakland Tribune, 09/14/03].

RM2 plays other tricks:

• RM2's promoters deviously framed the 50% toll hike as a "fee" increase,
  so that passage would require only a simple majority. But "fees" should pay for
  directly-related services — not political favors.
• For unreimbursed daily commuters, RM2 represents a tax increase of $200 or
  more annually. Despite "social equity" claims by some RM2 promoters, RM2 hits low-wage bridge commuters especially hard.
• Most of any bridge-toll increase should be spent directly on bridge upkeep and
  the Bay Area's worst traffic bottlenecks. Instead, from "new environmentally friendly ferries" to "a beautiful new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco," RM2 is primarily an expensive grab-bag of special-interest sugarplums.

Please vote NO on RM2!

Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association Santa Clara County Libertarian Party
George Swenson, President Ray Strong, Chairman

Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers Waste Watchers, Inc. (Fremont) Kenneth E. Hambrick, Chairman Kenneth D. Steadman, President

Citizens for Democracy (Antioch)
Ralph A. Hernandez, Chairman

Add-ons for later, in rebuttal…

• RM2 provides nothing directly for South Bay traffic congestion. The nearest
  listed RM2 project is Dumbarton Bridge commuter rail service, costing $135 Million
  in capital outlays and $5.5 Million in annual subsidies.
• But including even diamond lanes, only 13% of the billions spent under RM2 would fund improvements in Bay Area roads, freeways, and bridges. The rest funds extravagant public-transit projects — and millions in new operational subsidies for transportation facilities and conveyances that, with limited ridership, come nowhere close to paying their own way.