Marin needs rail, but not Measure R

Less traffic. Less pollution. More affordable housing. The concept of the SMART Train can deliver a winning situation for a lot of hard working people. Rail lines such as the Metro North or Long Island Rail Road in New York have been very successful for residents in suburbs of large cities providing simple, public transport to highly congested business centers. BART and Caltrain offer transportation to millions of passengers each year seeking transportation throughout the Bay Area.

In Marin, traffic is on the 101 is a serious problem often extending commutes from minutes to hours. Residents living further out have no choice but to get in the car and drive to the ferry system or to the city. Housing prices near the city are at an all-time high and areas where there is room for development are undesirable due to commute times. As a resident of Mill Valley and commuter to downtown San Francisco, I would welcomethe option to at least consider living further out without the degradation in quality of life due to a longer commute.

With a rail system, residents in outer Marin and Sonoma county could afford housing while maintaining jobs in or near the city. But there are problems with the existing proposal on the ballot and one major flaw that leads me to believe that the problems with this Measure will be problems we will be dealing with long into the future.

The key problem with the Measure is the financing of the project. I am in favor of having a limited sales tax increase to fund the development and investment in infrastructure. However, the problems lies in the fact that, according to the SMART Train website, only 9 percent of funding will come from fare revenue.

This is highly concerning and raises the question of sustainability for the program and the intelligence behind the investment. How can less than 10 percent of the funding come from the passengers the train is supposed to serve? How is that logical? I can understand subsidizing 10 to 20% of the trains service, but more than 90%? Why would we build a train that was so expensive? It does not make sense.

The website does state that fare revenue will contribute $33 Million each year (or $660 Million over 20 years) which is roughly the same amount of revenue the sales tax is expected to contribute ($668 Million). But this seemingly contradictory figure indicates problems with the planning beyond determining the location of rail stations. Is it 9% or not? What is the real financing plan? Is the train self-sustaining? Can we answer these questions before we commit billions?

Marin voters deserve more than slogans and half-baked financing plans. SMART Rail is right. Measure R is wrong. Let's draft a real plan that makes sense and get to work helping the community.

Vote NO on R.