Transit tax talk delayed

Officials: More time needed for community input

A proposal to tax Palo Alto businesses to pay for traffic-reduction measures is not in the stars, or on the ballot, this year.

Palo Alto council members unanimously decided this month to put off until the fall a conversation about a local tax that would help pay for programs such as shuttles and bike boulevards.

The council followed the recommendation of City Manager James Keene, who asked for “a little bit of a timeout” and said that city staff simply doesn’t have the capacity to support the type of comprehensive community engagement process that would be needed before placing such a tax on the ballot. “Just speaking for the staff, I don’t think we have concluded that a tax would be a bad idea,” Keene said. “But the process that you’ve directed so far to get to that point, I think, is potentially inefficient.”

Council members and city staff need to define what projects a local tax would finance and the goals of a community engagement process before forming a transportation stakeholder group, though the council had approved such a group in October, Keene said.

Until then, proceeding with the public engagement process would just divert staff resources from other committed projects the city has, Keene added.

The same transportation staff members who would be involved in the local tax process already are occupied by projects such as the evolving Residential Preferential Parking permit system; design of new parking garages downtown and near California Avenue; changes to the Santa Clara Valley TransportationAuthority bus system; working with the VTA on deployment of Measure B funding; and revision of the city’s comprehensive plan.

Vice Mayor Liz Kniss shared Keene’s concerns about overextending staff. She’s also worried about “tax fatigue.”

“We’ve just really pushed hard on Measure B: We supported the county on that. We delivered,” Kniss said. “There are promises that were made in Measure B and we’re really looking to have those promises fulfilled.”

Voters countywide approved in November an increase in sales tax by a half-cent, raising about $6 billion over 30 years for transportation improvement, including a BART extension to San Jose and some projects important to Palo Alto, such as a Caltrain grade separation.