EDITOR: The headline in the Tuesday, June 10, Times
“VTA delays massive cuts to bus service” should have read “VTA
board refuses to face facts; applies for no-limit Measure A credit
card.”
EDITOR:
The headline in the Tuesday, June 10, Times “VTA delays massive cuts to bus service” should have read “VTA board refuses to face facts; applies for no-limit Measure A credit card.”
Does the VTA Board of Directors really believe that it can dupe the voters into re-allocating Measure A Transportation funds to support the continuing mismanagement of the Valley Transportation Authority? Does the VTA Board recognize that the chief operating officer of the VTA is making $200,000 per year to drive our public transit system into bankruptcy? (By comparison, Gov. Gray Davis is only charging taxpayers $161,000 in salary to drive our whole state into fiscal insolvency).
More importantly, we citizens hereby remind the VTA Board of Directors that it has fiduciary responsibility for solving the crisis and can be held liable for not taking the proper fiscal and management realignment actions.
If 85 percent of the VTA funding comes from sales tax revenues, does any one really believe that raising taxes will solve the long term problem? Here is a fresh idea, fire everyone in a senior management position at the VTA – right now. Get some serious folks engaged, that can make a positive difference in providing superior transit services to the citizens of this county.
The VTA Board of Directors needs to take action, not defer the hard decisions. We the people are not willing to sweep the fiscal mismanagement of the VTA under the rug by enduring additional taxes. Likewise, we do not authorize you to steal our votes by compromising Measure A funds that were never intended to be used by out of control, fiscally insolvent, government bureaucracies.
John Murphy, San Martin
