No on Measure J

There has been a lot of talk in the Sentinel about using Measure J, the sales tax initiative to widen Highway One, as a way to help people move around Santa Cruz County. We don't think it will work. Modern planning documents and a look at big freeways around the United States point to the same thing: you just can't build your way out of congestion. So what are the backers of Measure J really thinking? They're thinking about money. A lot of it. Measure J won't redistribute traffic, but it will redistribute 500 million dollars out of the checkbooks of the people of Santa Cruz County and into the bank accounts of the large corporations funding Yes on J. Check out the bottom line (according to the County Elections Department, October 6, 2004).

Who is paying for the Yes on J campaign?

Contributor Amount
Granite Construction $25,000.00
A sure bet for some or all construction contracts
Granite Rock $15,000.00
The only supplier of roadbed baserock in this part of the country
Californian Alliance for Jobs $10,000.00
A lobbying group for the heavy construction industry
HNTB $4,000.00
Large engineering firm specializing in transport tax measures
Santa Cruz Assoc. of Realtors
Will get 6% of every house sold in every bedroom community in South County
Other corporations $8,500.00
Local Santa Cruz Citizens $0.0

Measure J is being touted as a compromise, as a way to give everyone part of what they want, but if Measure J was a broadly supported compromise, it would be broadly supported. It is not. Forty percent of the Supervisors don't support Measure J, nor do the cities of Santa Cruz or Capitola, nor does the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District. Measure J isn't even popular among people that it is supposed to help. Take Friends of the Rail Trail (FORT) for example: "FORT's conclusion is that the impact of the passage of Measure J on the rail-trail would be to substantially increase the cost to taxpayers and delay corridor acquisition and construction of the Rail Trail." Measure J is a net loss for alternative transportation.

It's also a net loss for our neighborhoods and for commuters on Highway 17. Widening Highway One will give the opportunity to bring more cars from the rest of the Monterey Bay to Santa Cruz County. More cars on Highway One will mean more cars on Highway 17 and more cars on our surface streets. It will encourage more sprawl in the central Monterey Bay Area.

Measure J is a net loss to the local and global environment. The United States has become the leading contributor of global warming by putting short term profit over sensible planning—an accurate description of this inititative. If you care about global warming, vote no on Measure J.

Santa Cruz Mayor Scott Kennedy and six of seven candidates running for City Council in Santa Cruz do not support measure J. As Kennedy puts it, "we need to draft a balanced transportation measure for Santa Cruz County. This ain't it."

Eric Bowman drives from Soquel to Palo Alto everyday to teach art at Henry Gunn High School in Palo Alto. He doesn't support Measure J either, saying "It's a lot of money and I don't think it will really help with congestion."

Roger Grigsby is a Republican and the owner of a small business. He doesn't support Measure J either saying, "Highway One is a state highway. If it's going to be widened, the state should use our gas taxes to pay for it. They don't need anymore of our money."

But where we see a tax measure that helps nobody, the backers of Measure J see profit—a lot of it. And they are having a disproportionately large affect on Regional Transportation Commissioners like Richard De La Paz who says, "everything I learned about transportation I learned at Granite Rock." Granite Rock is Richard De La Paz's employer.

Highway 1 widening will:

Demand more from your transportation policy makers. Demand the truth. Vote NO on Measure J.

Spike Alper
Treasure, No on Measure J