Yikes that sounds bad. Will need to see the details to be sure though. So here is how Santa Clara County handles the same issue already: every 10 years, they p

Yikes that sounds bad. Will need to see the details to be sure though. So here is how Santa Clara County handles the same issue already: every 10 years, they put on the ballot a one-cent sales tax. Along side it, they put a list of the projects to be funded. There is a clear link between the tax and projects, local control, a deadline, and a 10-year reckoning. Alameda County has also started a similar project. Consider the alternative: the new Bay Bridge eastern span. It cost way more than it should have. Why? Because the mayors of Oakland and Berkeley demanded a pretty bridge instead of a simple one. It was paid for not by Oakland and Berkeley, but by the state which charges tolls on all the bridges -- including the Dumbarton, San Mateo, and Antioch bridges which were of the exact same "simple" type that Oakland and Berkeley complained about. When the projects are paid for out of big, faceless funding, then there is no incentive to make it work for the people paying the tax. For example, link up Caltrain closer to downtown? That's not really a benefit to anyone other than SF and the Penninsula.