Transit tax

"But local officials are pretending it’s a “citizens’ initiative” to lower the threshold to 50%. This proposal didn’t come from the public. Why is this even legal?"

This is where ASTROTURFING comes into play. You have local nonprofits that pretend to be "bicycle coalitions", YIMBY-housing advocates, even PTAs/PTOs supporting "education". A lot of them are actually legit advocacy groups run by volunteers sacrificing time and effort to make the world a better place.

But there are quite a few bad apples. Whenever the leadership gets salaried, the prospects become very, very dicey. Because whoever gets paid can also be bought.

Example 1:

The salaried leadership of the Silicon Valley bicycle coalition for example is constantly helping with "surveys" and "outreach" and planning of "funding campaigns". But when it comes to local bicycle campaigns - like the Humboldt Bike lanes in San Mateo - you won't see any salaried leaders speaking out.

Example 2:

In Redwood City the leadership of the Redwood City Education Foundation is paid for by Stanford and Jay Paul - and parents that have no problem with School Segregation. The salaried leadership is basically put in place to make sure that politicians like Jeff Gee and Mike Wells look "clean" while really promoting School Segregation and Antisemitism ... and rerouting the money into real estate projects.

Example 3:

The leader Samaritan House celebrated the highway widening of 101 which brings more air pollution into low income neighborhoods along that freeway - and she was sitting on the CA clean air board at the time.

These are no accidents. This is just another form of corruption.

Great letter. Is anyone else tired of what seems like an endless stream of nickel and dime local tax increases? Maybe new taxes should be put on an April 16 ballot.

Thanks for your letter, C.J. and Chris, highlighting the issues with any sales tax to support transit. It is likely that most, if not all, tax proceeds will continue paying for ever increasing salaries, pensions, and benefits. Transit companies are doing nothing to practice fiscal management and until they do, vote NO on any tax measures supporting transit (or anything else). As for Speier being the only one to see through “all of this” one has to wonder how much transit companies contributed to everyone’s campaign. Is there a correlation?