By Gary Richards
Mercury News
Article Launched: 09/24/2008 06:01:40 PM PDT
The BART extension to Santa Clara County received a big financial boost Wednesday, and will receive an even bigger one today.
The California Transportation Commission today is expected to allocate $239 million in state funds to help pay for the construction of the 16.3-mile BART line from Fremont to Santa Clara, completing a pledge made by the state nine years ago to contribute $760 million for BART. And Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area-wide transportation agency, voted to shift $91 million away from a proposed Dumbarton rail line to the BART project.
"This makes BART seem more real, something that can happen in our lifetime and not 20 years or more," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a member of the Valley Transportation Authority board. "The state has made a huge commitment."
But even with state and regional agencies lining up solidly behind the $6.1 billion project, there is still a huge missing link in the financial puzzle.
The VTA needs about $750 million in federal assistance to build the BART line. But the Federal Transit Administration gave the BART line a "not recommended" rating in 2004, telling local officials it won't even consider a request for such a sum until the VTA comes up with a revenue source to pay for daily operations and maintenance, roughly $50 million a year.
The focus now turns to the Nov. 4 election, in which Santa Clara County voters will be asked to support a one-eighth-cent increase in the local sales tax to cover those costs. This is on top of the half-cent sales tax approved eight years ago for BART and other transit improvements.
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