First, SMART officials must tackle big questions

The SMART train public meetings mentioned in a recent Marin Voice column by Eric Lucan and Barbara Pahre (“Extensive public outreach informed SMART train budget planning,” July 26) are welcome news. The voters’ rejection of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit’s proposed 30year sales tax extension on the March 2020 ballot indicates there are more issues at stake than just a lack of transparency and communication.

I disagree that SMART is a “green commute.” It operates on 100% diesel oil. SMART’s climate analysis is unconvincing. The purported 4,000 tons of reduced carbon dioxide constitute less than 1% of Marin’s annual emissions and appear to come at a cost of over $20,000 per ton when the California cap-and-trade market price is $17 per ton. This is neither a prudent climate model nor a serious rationale for a 30-year tax extension.

Will SMART’s 19th-century technology make sense for the next 40 years? We are in an unprecedented era of transportation innovation. Autonomous vehicles, Uber, electric bikes and scooters and other lastmile initiatives are proliferating. Transportation five years from now may point to a different future.

Marin’s revenue approaches are often inequitable. The SMART sales tax falls disproportionately on lower-income households. Marin parcel taxes disproportionately burden small lot homeowners versus estates. Growing awareness of this inequity may partly explain why the wildfire prevention tax initiative based on square footage passed and the Tam Union High School District parcel tax proposal didn’t.

Sonoma and Marin should commit to high density residential development around SMART stations to augment ridership.

Absent this, future subsidy needs may exceed the appetite of taxpayers.

The pandemic may have a significant lasting effect on how we work and get to work, especially using mass transit. Uncertainty is high.

Any further tax initiative should be equitable, shorter than 30 years and not voted on earlier than four years from now when trends will be clearer.

— Robert Archer, Ross