Published Thursday, January 15, 2004, in the San Jose Mercury News

BART to San Jose gets 'Not Recommended' rating
FTA announcemnet due next month

By Gary Richards
Mercury News

The Federal Transit Administration is expected to give the BART to
San Jose project a not recommended rating, a decision which could
affect hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid needed to
complete the 16-mile extension.

Silicon Valley leaders announced today that the FTA rating would be
most likely released next month.

"This is a disappointing recommendation," said Congressman Mike Honda
from San Jose. "But it wasn't surprising given the economy."

FTA officials would not comment on the ranking, but local officials
said the financial crisis engulfing the Valley Transportation
Authority is the reason. The VTA has been hammered by the recession,
and faces an annual shortfall of $100 million a year to continue
operating its current fleet of buses and trains.

"This has nothing to do with the project itself," said VTA General
Manager Pete Cipolla. "They recognize the project has merit.

"But they are looking at the economic situation and the obvious
financial impacts on VTA. That's why we're getting a not recommended
rating."

The BART extension is expected to cost $4 billion, and four years ago
Santa Clara County voters approved a 30-year, half-cent sales tax
hike to bring the popular commuter trains to downtown San Jose.

The tax, which will be first collected in 2006, was to pay for
slightly more than half of the work. The rest was to come from the
state and Washington.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget released last week pulled the
plug on nearly $76 million in state aid that had been promised. And
last year the FTA requested the VTA scale back plans so it could
lower the $834 million in federal aid sought by local leaders.

The FTA decision does not preclude a rating change in future years.
The FTA ranks projects every year, sometimes twice a year.

And some projects which fall on the not-recommended list still are
appropriated funds by Congress, which is now in the middle or
reauthorizing a new transportation budget.


[BATN: See also:

SVMG CEO: budget "won't delay [SJ] BART by one day"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15826

Budget to delay Prop. 42-funded projects, BART
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15787

VTA CFO Buhrer, SJ BART project manager Ives resign
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15749

Letter: Drop SJ BART & fund good transit projects
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/15748 ]