Oct 22, 2008 8:06 pm US/Pacific
CBS 5 Poll: South Bay BART Measure Falling Short
SAN JOSE (CBS 5/KCBS/BCN) ―
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A train travels southbound from the Berkeley area.
A new poll of Santa Clara County voters finds Measure B, a one-eighth-cent increase in the sales tax to help pay for the BART extension to San Jose, still has not garnered the two-thirds majority it needs to pass.
A CBS 5 poll conducted by SurveyUSA found that 62 percent of likely voters either lean toward voting or are certain to vote for the extension.
The Yes on B campaign has lined up big names such as former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to convince the 17 percent who are still undecided about laying the 16.1 miles of track. With San Jose's Diridon Station as a backdrop, he and other Bay Area transportation officials gave Measure B their overwhelming endorsement Wednesday.
"It was a mistake that Santa Clara County opted not to join BART" when the idea was first conceived more than 50 years ago, Mineta said.
"We can correct that mistake and build a transportation system that will join transit all around the Bay together," he said.
"It has an impact on the economy, has an impact on the environment, and it has an impact on the whole issue of where we work and play," Mineta said.
But 21 percent of voters in the survey still do not support the measure.
Greg Perry with the No on B campaign fears the long delayed project will eventually require still more tax hikes down the line.
"We know they have big name endorsements, but do they have an actual funding plan in place that could pay for it?" he asked during an interview with CBS. "They won't release the funding plan."
SurveyUSA interviewed 639 likely voters in Santa Clara County on Oct. 20 and 21. The margin of error for the poll is 3.8 percent.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
Download Full Poll Results (Pdf.)
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