☆ Money for nothing? Pat Waite asks where Santa Clara County’s tax dollars have gone
SC County residents have already begun voting on a 5/8-cent sales tax increase, which they’re told will be “temporary” and will “save the hospitals.” But are either of these incantations believable? SVBA’s Pat Waite flips through county’s greatest hits: so-called “temporary” taxes that never went away—and underdelivered on what they promised. An Opportunity Now exclusive Q&A.
Opportunity Now: In 1996, Santa Clara County voters were asked to approve Measure B, a half-cent sales tax to improve transit. It was only supposed to last nine years, but residents are still paying that half-cent sales tax. Why?
Silicon Valley Business Alliance Treasurer Pat Waite: Well, Santa Clara County followed that up in 2000 with Measure A, which was supposed to build the BART line to downtown San Jose. This didn’t actually increase the sales tax at the time, but it significantly lengthened, by 30 years, Measure B from 1996.
ON: So a nine-year tax turned into a 30-year tax? Meaning that instead of expiring in 2006 it would expire in 2036?
SVBA: Correct. And we still don’t have BART.
ON: But then came Measure B passed in 2016, what did that do?
SVBA: That measure replaced the earlier ones, stretching the same ‘temporary’ tax out to 2046.
ON: So, a half-cent tax that began in 1996 will now last until at least 2046. That’s 50 years total, meaning 20 more years to go. Do you think BART will connect to San Jose by then?
SVBA: Who knows? VTA is still looking for a new contractor for the downtown tunnel after a falling out over pricing with their original selection. They now estimate bringing one on in 2027 and maybe opening the extension by 2037. We’ll see.
ON: This transit tax was also supposed to help fund other mass transit systems, and roads. Was it money well spent by the taxpayer?
SVBA: Probably not. Three grand jury reports issued on VTA since 2003 consistently point to poor governance and a lack of accountability. A 2024 California State Auditor report chided VTA for failing to perform cost benefit analyses on two major projects. Why should taxpayers continue giving an organization that keeps failing various independent reviews any more money?
We have the nation’s worst farebox recovery in our mass transit system. We have roads that are crap, not to mention congested. What’s the money actually doing? Our mass transit system doesn’t exist to move people. It seems to me that VTA mostly exists to pay VTA employees rather than implementing “solutions that move people.”
ON: Santa Clara County is also collecting a 1/8-cent sales tax for its general fund. Wasn’t that supposed to be temporary?
SVBA: That started when voters approved Measure A in 2012, a sales tax going to Santa Clara County’s general fund. It was supposed to last 10 years.
ON: Then what happened?
SVBA: Voters passed the 2018 Measure A sales tax renewal. This turned a temporary tax into a permanent tax.
ON: Is there a lesson here for voters in this year’s special election as they decide on whether to approve a temporary 5/8-cent sales tax?
SVBA: The 2018 sales tax renewal is a perfect example of how a temporary tax becomes permanent. They’ll tell you they’re not raising a tax, just extending it. But if they didn’t extend it, you’d have that money in your pocket. Government has an insatiable appetite for tax dollars.
ON: And what are Santa Clara County taxpayers getting in return?
SVBA: The County is doing a poor job of delivering on their core competency requirements, which are education, public safety, health, and housing. So many people would say that all of those metrics are unacceptable. Where is their $13 billion budget going?
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