Why do local gov'ts appear to ignore citizen input and favor big, moneyed interests? Academics and community leaders explore, below.
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Voters across the country are seeing modest, short-term transit proposals or outright rejecting new tax hikes. But the Bay Area’s Transit Industrial Complex is trying to muscle through a mammoth, regressive sales tax to bail out local transit agencies. Thunder Parley, CIO, Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit, reviews just how extreme our local regional transit measure truly is.
Support for the Bay Area's troubled Regional Transit Tax is fading, as fresh, acute critiques challenge the proposed bailout of local transit agencies. Reports from Merc and SJ Spotlight, below.
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Polls showing plummeting support for potential new taxes prompts city to back off on new levy. Mtn View Voice explains
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Daniel Skiles, a policy consultant at the Institute for Public Strategies--a public health-focused advocacy organization--explains why entertainment zone boozing (as SJ has learned) is a recipe for trouble.
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According to leading SJ neighborhood group Families & Homes, the upcoming proposal to upzone the whole city isn't a minor tweak. Rather, F&H sees it as a complete overhaul of our residential neighborhoods with major risks for residents
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For decades, smart economists have watned that inclusionary zoning (such as SJ has) acts a hidden tax on new construction, raising market-rate prices, and slowing down the overall supply of housing. SF seems to be seeing the light. Mission Local explains, below.
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But not so much about state-, county- or city-wide fiscal realities. For good reason. Peter Verbica explains.
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Families and Homes SJ suggests that the city's vast "Missing Middle" zoning recommendation is a leap in the dark--characterized by lots of wishful thinking and unproven assumptions.
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Transit tax boosters’ own internal pollster warns the initiative’s small polling lead (54-46) relies on “soft support.” This means the onerous sales tax hike has an extremely narrow track to victory and, if historic trends hold, could be headed off the rails. Research from the Public Policy Institute of California points to four reasons why the race looks to be so close, below.
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When left-leaning Bay Area pols unite behind candidates, trouble often arises.
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According to citywide neighborhood group Families and Homes, SJ’s greatest long-term planning challenge is not simply a housing shortage—it's an imbalance between housing and jobs. While the proposed Missing Middle program would add significant residential capacity, it does not include a strategy to create the employment needed to support that growth. The result could be greater fiscal strain on an already financially constrained city.
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