Extravagant BART bailout would drive Gilroy sales tax over 10%. Plus, does Gilroy even benefit from these vast transit system expenditures?
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Just weeks after the SJ City Council harrumphed their opposition to the Local Taxpayers' Act initiative, Gov. Newsom and huge majorities in CA Senate and Assembly voted to forge ahead on the initiative's key element: new local taxes should require a 66% majority. Jon Coupal of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers' Ass'n explains the key recent developments below.
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Those mostly empty light rail trains trundling down the tracks are actually environmental menaces, claims author and transit expert Randal O’Toole. He revealed some inconvenient transit truths last weekend at a seminar hosted by SHIFT Bay Area, here summarized by AI.
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Democratic Socialists' sweep in NYC elections this week highlights the growing influence of the far-left movement in the Silicon Valley political scene.
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Yesterday's (June 23) SJ Council vote advancing the idea of Ranked Choice Voting for (special) elections was seen by many as a classic example of Incrementalism. This is a process by which major systemic changes are achieved through a series of small and politically viable steps that camouflage sweeping overhauls likely to be opposed by the populace. Concepts from Thea Snow, LinkedIn.
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Bay Area voters are being asked to pass a half-cent sales tax increase this November to keep transit agencies like VTA on the rails. But what if VTA doesn’t need a rescue? Mark Joffe of CocoTax explains. An Opp Now exclusive.
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The Mayors of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Campbell, Saratoga, and Milpitas ask Speaker Rivas for a temporary halt to the flood of new state housing demands and policies, so they can figure out what works and what doesn't--and save their staffs from administrative overload. Edited May 7, 2026 letter below.
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Merc says: "A Santa Clara County civil grand jury report sharply criticized the VTA’s handling of the nearly $13 billion San Jose BART extension." Below, the latest list of VTA costly flubs.
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Before yesterday’s 9-2 vote to oppose taxpayer protections, San Jose officials were forced to peddle some blatant falsehoods to justify their attack on taxpayer rights. We caught up with HJTA’s Susan Shelley who made quick work of the council’s wild disinformation-palooza…
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It’s easy to get swept up in a chorus of tax and spend councilmembers, singing from the same hymnal. But during Tuesday’s 9-2 vote in favor of an anti-Prop 13 memo, Councilmembers George Casey and Bien Doan stayed consistent with their past defenses of fiscal restraint and concerns about government and tax overreach.
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Assembly candidate Carol Pefley calls out the cynicism of many SJ City Council Democrats (like Mayor Mahan) who campaigned on platforms of fiscal responsibility, only to turn into tax-and-spend liberals, as evidenced by their June 16 vote to oppose the Save Prop 13 initiative.
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San Jose is Prop 13 Country, but the city council remains oblivious to this fact. CM Cohen leads the council in opposing the restoration of taxpayer protections contained in this November’s Save Prop 13 act – and tells some whoppers while he’s at it. Susan Shelley at HJTA corrects Cohen’s misrepresentation of the important initiative in this week's Tax-free Tuesday. An Opp Now Exclusive.
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