Published Thursday, November 8, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

Editorial

Next stop, San Jose

Well, in 10 years, but crucial funding decision keeps BART on track

YOU can almost hear the train rolling in from Fremont. BART's on its
way to downtown San Jose, thanks to the timely agreement reached
Tuesday between the BART system and the Valley Transportation
Authority.

Of course it's still a decade away -- but if the two agencies hadn't
ironed out their differences on how to operate the line this week, it
might never have been built.

VTA has agreed to pay $48 million a year for BART operations. It had
agreed all along to pay $23 million of that to run the Santa Clara
County line itself. The question was how much more VTA would be
willing to pay as its share of overall operating costs of the entire
BART system. The answer is a ton of money --  but nobody ever said
bringing BART south would be cheap.

The settlement was Solomon-like. If VTA hasn't identified a new
source of revenue by 2009, then it'll have to take the money out of
its regular operating funds and cut bus and light rail service. That
would be a disaster. But by setting the deadline eight years out, the
pact gives VTA plenty of time to figure out where to find the money,
which it knew it would have to find anyway.

There are so many questions about future financing -- not the least
of which is whether current projections of sales tax revenue, on
which construction plans are based, will hold up through an extended
recession. But voters want BART. Negotiators appear to have done
their best with the information available. In 2009, with 20-20
hindsight, people may think differently.

Metropolitan Transportation Commissioner and Santa Clara County
Supervisor Jim Beall says the San Jose BART line now will join a Muni
subway project in San Francisco as the top priorities for federal
funding. The East Bay will get money to acquire rights of way for
future BART lines. It's something for everyone, which is the way
regional plans need to work.

What's not ideal is the last-minute scrambling -- but then, this BART
plan wasn't ideal from the start. Most new lines are included in
regional plans before voters approve new taxes to build them. BART to
San Jose champions, mainly Mayor Ron Gonzales and the Silicon Valley
Manufacturing Group, got the cart before the horse with last fall's
successful sales tax measure.

Carts and horses now are irrelevant. BART's on the way.