Answers needed before we vote
We need guarantees on how funds will be spent
Regional Measure 3 will be on the June 5 ballot in the nine Bay Area counties. If it passes, it will result in bridge toll increases of up to $3 and raise an estimated $4.45 billion to be used for transportation projects throughout the Bay Area. The measure would provide funding for some needed transportation improvements, such as the purchase of new BART and San Francisco Municipal Railway cars and the much needed 1.3 mile Caltrain downtown extension.
A fair number of the measure’s other projects, however, are of questionable value.
The following questions are not about the merit (or lack thereof ) of the measure’s projects, but instead focus on how the expenditure of dollars would be managed and administered. In the recent past, Bay Area transportation agency administrators have diverted voter-approved funds from their specified use to other uses later deemed to be of higher priority. In an effort to avoid a repeat of past mistakes, the volunteer organization I represent has requested definitive answers on how the Measure 3 program would be managed and administrated.
The proponents of the measure have so far provided no answers to these questions:
How would the Bay Area Toll Authority (as administrator) prevent the misdirection and waste of scarce transportation resources? The dollar amounts assigned to some of the measure’s projects look quite high. What would happen to surpluses?
What would guarantee that funds allocated to later projects would still be there when needed? Some of the projects on the list would be ready for immediate construction; others would take years to get to that point.
How would project cost overruns be paid for? Would the needed additional funds come from Measure 3 or from some other source?
In view of the sketchy project descriptions in state Senate Bill 595, which often include escape clauses such as “including but not limited to,” what guarantees are there that the money authorized for a particular project would be spent on that project?
Are the 35 Measure 3 capital projects described in that legislation, signed into law by the governor in October 2017, part of an overall regional plan designed to materially reduce traffic congestion and improve the region’s rail and other public transit systems? Or are they a hodgepodge of parochial and Caltrans projects cherry-picked to satisfy various special interests?
Clear answers to these questions are needed before anyone is asked to vote for Regional Measure 3.
Gerald Cauthen is the chair of Bay Area Transportation Working Group, a group of concerned citizens formed in 2012 and dedicated to the goal of returning balance to Bay Area transportation. He is the former senior engineering manager and transportation vice president for Parson Brinckerhoff, an engineering and design firm.