Honorable Council Members, Thank you for taking a position in support of getting the Caltrain funding measure on the ballot. Now that the measure will be on the ballot as Measure RR, it would be helpful for City Council to endorse. As you know, this is a 1/8 cent sales tax providing dedicated funding for Caltrain. Caltrain has never had dedicated funding, resulting in periodic financial crisis despite the fact that pre-Covid Caltrain got 70% of its funding from fares. Now with Covid, Caltrain faces serious risk and potential shutdown. If Caltrain is shut down for an undefined period of time this would make it extraordinarily difficult to achieve our goals for climate, congestion relief and housing. Surveys show that riders do intend to return after the pandemic eases - for example Caltrain's poll indicated that 70% of people who used Caltrain frequently before the pandemic plan to use Caltrain as much or more than before. The measure would fund faster, more frequent all-day service that will help Caltrain be useful for more kinds of trips, for example coming downtown for dinner. Right now, hourly mid-day/evening/weekend service makes it impractical. While a sales tax is regressive, the tax would fund unprecedented equity and connectivity policies and programs, providing access to Caltrain for a greater diversity of people across the income spectrum. The polling that was done in June - weeks 12 and 13 of shelter-in-place - was surprisingly positive, but it is likely to be close. Any public information that helps voters understand how important this is for the city would be helpful. Here is a document with supporting information. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mdkU1zif5PYwRRd9GfCvHOdx71XzcJTQrzW_P6yvnYo/edit Thank you very much for your consideration, Thanks, - Adina Adina Levin Friends of Caltrain https://greencaltrain.com 650-646-4344 Received on Tue Aug 18 2020 - 13:16:25 PDT
