Breaking: BART to San Jose may pass after all
Update to the story below as of 1720h PST: The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that with 9800 ballots remaining, Measure B has passed the 66.67 percent mark.
The ballot initiative to fund a BART extension to San Jose may have squeaked by, KNTV was reporting this afternoon. Though initial balloting showed the measure falling short of the required two-thirds majority, mail-in ballots are turning the tide.
With 17,000 of 42,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted, the vote to fund the 22-mile BART extension with a 1/8-cent Santa Clara County sales tax was 66.61 percent yes; the measure, like any tax increase in California since the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, requires at least a 66.67 percent yes vote.
If the Bart-to-San Jose tax passes, it would complete a surprising trifecta of voter support for mass transit projects at a time when local and state budgets are tight. Earlier this month, voters in Marin and Sonoma Counties passed a rail initiative, and statewide Proposition 1A also passed, kicking off the state’s bullet train project.
The Warm Springs station is in Alameda County. The map shows seven stations in Santa Clara County, which is now down to six stations; gone is the SJSU station. I wonder where the heck we will be going in the South Bay… http://sanjose.metblogs.com/2008/10/25/bart-to-silicon-valley/
The extension to Warm Springs was approved previously and is a separate project, I believe: http://bart.gov/about/projects/wsx/index.aspx