DALLAS -- Santa Clara County, Calif., residents will vote in November on a 0.5% countywide sales tax to fund up to $6.5 billion of transportation projects over the next 30 years.
Collections of the proposed "Envision Silicon Valley" sales tax could begin as early as April 2017 if voters provide the required super-majority margin, according to officials at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The measure must be approved by two thirds of those voting to be enacted.
Voters in Santa Clara County in 2000 approved a 0.5% sales tax dedicated to transit with 70% in favor. That tax will expire in 2036. A separate sales tax that funds Bay Area Rapid Transit operations in the county passed by a similar margin in 2008.
The county at southern end of San Francisco Bay includes San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley, commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. It is the most populous county in the Bay Area with some 1.8 million residents and one of the most affluent counties in the U.S.
The proposed tax is expected to generate between $6 billion and $6.5 billion in 2017 dollars over the next 30 years, SCVTA said.
The funding would include $1.85 billion of expressway and highway projects, $1.5 billion to extend BART to Santa Clara, $1.2 billion for repairs to local streets, $1 billion for upgrades to the Caltrain commuter rail system that serves Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties, and $500 million for bus and rail operations.
Revenue from the proposed sales tax would be used to leverage additional transportation funding from regional, state, and federal sources, said Nuria Fernandez, general manager of SCVTA.
"The sales tax measure will not be the sole funding source for a project," she said. "One significant advantage of a countywide sales tax is that it provides a local revenue source for obtaining additional funds."
The transit authority will be responsible for the cost of putting the sales tax proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot. Fernandez said a 2010 countywide election cost SCVTA almost $870,000.
Johnny Khamis, a San Jose city council member who also sits on the SCVTA board, voted to put the sales tax referendum on the ballot but said the 30-year plan focuses too much on transit and other non-highway projects.
Slightly more than half of the proposed spending goes to rail and other public transit with only 48% devoted to streets and highways, he said.
"I love driving my car, and I think 97% of our population does as well," Khamis said. "Whether you're on the bus, or a car, whether it's hybrid or electric, or on a bicycle, you need a road. We don't float on air."
Only 4% of the funding would be devoted to bicycle and pedestrian improvements, but Colin Heyne of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition urged his members to support the sales tax proposal.
"We're so happy to see this measure come to reality," he said. "The proposed measure is going to provide ways to make our transportation system accommodate options other than the private car."
SCVTA has $1.1 billion of outstanding sales tax debt rated AAA by S&P Global Ratings, AA by Fitch Ratings, and Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service.
Residents of San Jose, the seat of Santa Clara County and the third-largest city in California, will also vote in November on a separate 0.25% city sales tax that would generate $40 million per year over 15 years for public safety and street maintenance.
