South San Francisco, CA August 5, 2020 Submitted by David Burruto, Chief of Staff, SMC Supervisor Pine
San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine
Representatives of the three counties that comprise the Caltrain Joint Powers Authority have reached an agreement to finally facilitate a lifeline sales tax measure to be placed on the November General Election ballot.
Should the sales tax pass in November, Caltrain riders and the region will benefit tremendously as Caltrain will have funding to weather the COVID pandemic and to pursue expanded, affordable and reliable service as we electrify the system.
While the success of the ballot measure is by no means guaranteed, we now have a pathway to secure a long sought after dedicated source of revenue for Caltrain.
Caltrain can prosper only if local leaders work collaboratively and in the interest of the entire region that Caltrain serves. We have taken an important step in that direction with this agreement.
I find this extremely hard to pallet at this time. With people struggling to make ends meet the last thing that should be talked about now is a tax rate increase. I understand that a decreased ridership will lead to decreased revenues to the system, but re apportion your existing budget and not call on the community to refill your pocket book. Fellow residents on San Mateo County say NO to the ever increasing fleecing on the middle class. You wonder where the middle class is going, look to your politicians!
i hope that caltrain doesn’t involve
the MTC, or otherwise the MTC will
treat this as a BART slush fund, and
caltrain will as broke as they are now
to be on the safe side, hope caltrain
has a plan.”B”, its not business as
usual, and the residual effects are
going to be with them for a couple
of years to come