SACRAMENTO — After watching a flurry of local transit-related tax measures pass last November and seeing the Legislature endorse a statewide gas increase in April, voters in Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties might soon be asked to tax themselves for another transportation service: Caltrain.
Senate Bill 797 by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, would authorize county governments and transit authorities to place a 1/8-cent sales tax hike on a future ballot — amounting to an extra penny for every $8 spent.
“We all pay a little bit and we all prosper a lot,” said Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which is sponsoring the bill.
The revenue would generate roughly $100 million annually for Caltrain as it electrifies and expands its capacity to shuttle riders between San Francisco and San Jose, creating a steady funding source for a train that now relies on voluntary payments from three counties.
Advocates say the money is badly needed in a region notoriously mired in traffic. But a tax hike could be a tough sell in Santa Clara County, which already has the second-highest sales tax in California. There, in addition to the 12-cent increase in the gas tax soon to take effect, consumers pay a half-cent sales tax that voters approved in November to improve transportation, including extending BART to downtown San Jose.
“I don’t agree with any higher taxes,” said Laurie Koester, a recently retired county employee who lives in West San Jose. “It’s defeating its own purpose. Why would a person buy a car here when they could go somewhere where taxes are lower?”
The prospect of a sales tax hike comes as Caltrain begins to electrify a 51-mile stretch of track along the Peninsula, a $2 billion project scheduled to be completed by 2021. Last month it received a green light — and a long-awaited $647 million grant — from the federal government after months of delay.
Caltrain should trim its bureaucracy before asking voters for money, said Mark Hinkle, a Santa Clara County resident and president of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association. He also finds it unfair that all citizens would have to pay for a rail system that they may never have boarded.
“If they need to improve services, hey, raise the fares,” he said. “The people who are riding Caltrain — they should pay for it. Why should I pay for it? I never use it.”
But supporters argue that everyone who sits through gridlock on the Highway 101 “parking lot” will benefit from a Caltrain expansion, whether or not they ever climb aboard.
Hiking fares to cover the expansion costs, they argue, could discourage people from taking the train.
“Frankly, I don’t ride Caltrain, but I sure want someone else to,” Hill said in a phone interview Thursday as he made his way by car from Sacramento to the Bay Area. “I want the guy who’s driving right in front of me to ride the train.”
The statewide sales tax is 7.25 percent this year, but many cities and counties charge higher rates. With a 9 percent tax, Santa Clara County is second only to Alameda County, where the rate is 9.25 percent, according to the Board of Equalization. San Francisco County’s sales tax is 8.5 percent; San Mateo’s is 8.75 percent.
The proposed 1/8-cent Caltrain levy would raise Santa Clara County’s sales tax to 9.125 percent; San Francisco’s to 8.625 percent and San Mateo County’s to 8.875 percent.
The tax proposal must clear several hurdles before it appears on a ballot. First, Hill’s bill must be passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. Then, county and transit authorities in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties must authorize it. It also needs two-thirds approval from the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which governs Caltrain.
For the tax hike to take effect, two-thirds of voters in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties — their votes tallied together — must approve it.
Hill acknowledged that even if a tax measure appears on the ballot, its passage is far from certain. But, he said, voter tax fatigue might be trumped by another kind of misery that could work in the proposal’s favor: “traffic fatigue.”
Roque Leon, 25, of San Jose, said raising the sales tax by 1/8 of a cent would hardly break the bank.
“I don’t think you would notice it that much,” he said. “If anything, I think it would be a good thing.”
HOW HIGH COULD SALES TAX GO?
The statewide sales tax is 7.25 percent, but many cities and counties have their only sales taxes. If voters in three Bay Area counties agree to increase the sales tax by an eighth of a cent to help fund Caltrain, this is what the new rates would be:
Santa Clara County: 9.125 percent
San Mateo County: 8.875 percent.
San Francisco: 8.625 percent
Source: Board of Equalization
