“The financial oversight promised to Bay Area voters by Measure RTM’s architects has already failed,” says former BART Director Debora Allen, highlighting huge errors in the system's financial review.
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Local media leaned on a report from the “independent” nonprofit SPUR to scare voters into supporting the massive, five-county transit tax. But the SF Chronicle finds that even if transit agencies make good on their threats to cut 15 BART stations, (not likely), a so-called “Carmageddon” might make it 90 seconds longer to cross the Bay Bridge. SHIFT Bay Area breaks down the numbers:
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Which way will voters go, when it comes to backbreaking sales tax hikes on this year’s ballot? Wrapping up our election series, Opportunity Now takes a look at CoCo Tax President Marc Joffe’s warning on X that sales tax rates in several Alameda County cities could soon climb to 11.25%. But they don’t need to: Fixed rate sales, and even property taxes, generate increasing revenue that consistently beats inflation. Raising the rate is unnecessary, he argues, when government can (or at least should) run much more efficiently.
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For an ongoing series, we’re asking local leaders how this year’s election will shape the direction of governance. In an Opportunity Now exclusive commentary, SF Libertarian Party Chair Starchild warns that excessive power is a drug, and voters can help wean politicians off the supply:
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Leaning on SPUR’s contentious “Bumper to Bumper” report, The East Bay Times (aka Merc) again goes big with the scare tactics. But how much of this projected catastrophe is grounded in reality? In an Opp Now exclusive, transit expert Tom Rubin fact checks four of the most dubious assumptions behind SPUR's predictions.
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While the SF Mayor’s popularity may carry through reforms and a parcel tax, reining in the city’s “out-of-control budget” requires a yet-to-materialize constituency. So says Frontier Republicans and Friends President Bill Jackson in an exclusive Opportunity Now comment – the latest in our ongoing series on where the state and region are headed this November:
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In his pro-transit bailout Merc op-ed, SJ CM David Cohen gets a lot wrong, spins a lot of fabrications, and displays a lack of understanding about basic transit and tax truths. For an Opportunity Now exclusive, former CA Gov candidate Thunder Parley fact checks five of Cohen’s biggest misleads:
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What does this November’s election say about which way California and the nation are headed? As part of an Opportunity Now exclusive series on this November’s election, SV Log Cabin Republicans President Shane Patrick Connolly says that despite many reasons for optimism, acute price pressures and media bias weigh on voters and will favor the out-of-office party.
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The Mercury News reports that passenger traffic at airports is sinking--with SJC and OAK getting the worst of the downturn. How long before city officials call for a bailout, and promulgate yet another round of doomsday scenarios if we don't pony up more taxes?
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In an Opportunity Now exclusive comment for our series on the election, Silicon Valley Chinese Association VP Tony Guan predicts we’re headed toward bigger government with a billionaire’s tax very possible, and only cautious hope for voter ID reform.
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Unjustified assumptions. Unpublished data. Undisclosed financial ties. Zero analysis of alternatives. These are just a few of the concerns local transit experts have with SPUR's widely-panned (and widely quoted by local media!) puff research about the impact of the upcoming RTM tax.
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Merc Editorial board says it’s time to restore supermajority minimum for special taxes.
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