Regional Measure 3 is unfair

There is a massive disinformation campaign going on, paid for by Facebook, Google and other big businesses, trying to convince you that passing Regional Measure 3 will reduce traffic (It won’t). But RM3 puts an unfair, regressive tax on working people who have to cross bridges to get to work.
RM3 will cost workers $,2500 per year (including the payroll and income tax they pay to earn the toll money). Families with two workers crossing bridges will pay $5,000 per year. Only 10 percent of car commuters use bridges, so the tax burden falls on the few commuters who cannot afford to live closer to work! And RM3 won’t reduce traffic in any measurable way.
The promoters are shameless in their claims that the money will go to reducing traffic. How will $150 million for Bay Trails or $50 million for new Clipper Card machines or $500 million for “helping (sic)” to replace 300 BART trains reduce traffic? Even their “300 replacement trains” is designed to mislead, as replacement trains run well over $3 million each.
RM3 gives dozens of projects about 2 to 10 percent of the total needed, so nothing of use will be completed from this outrageous tax. Examples are everywhere: $100 million won’t pay for much “flood protection and mobility improvements on Highway 37” (a $4 billion project); nor will $375 million pay for the BART extension to Silicon Valley (a $5 billion project supposed to be paid from existing taxes); nor will $325 million pay for the Caltrain extension to the TransBay center, a $6.2 billion project. It goes on and on like that. Express lanes get $300 million and will actually promote more single person commuting, but it won’t buy much: CalTrans just spent $110 million for 11 miles of I680 Express lanes (8 miles of which were conversion of existing HOV lanes).
Worse, they hide the money! RM3 lists $4.5 billion for projects over 25 years, while collecting more than $380 million per year from working people who cross bridges! What?? More than $10 billion collected for $4.5 billion in projects?? Wait, read the fine print: $1.5 billion goes for “operating costs” to BART and MTC, the most wasteful agencies in the Bay Area. That leaves over $4 billion unaccounted for; where does that go? Wall Street bond holders? They won’t say. Not surprising with supporters like BART, MTC and Facebook.
RM3 is a fraud and will increase inequality by taxing a few working people. There are better ways to deal with traffic and transportation, like a parking space tax on Google, Facebook and other businesses that caused the traffic jams. Join Progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans alike and VOTE NO ON RM3.

Greg Gartrell,
Benicia

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