Endorsement: Sonoma-Marin rail service is growing. It needs support. Yes on Measure B |
A SMART train arrives at the Larkspur Station in 2023. Extending an existing ¼-cent sales tax to expand and fund SMART makes sense, the editorial board says.
Building infrastructure in California is notoriously difficult; trains are even more so. So why would anyone try to shut down a line that’s been operating for less than a decade?
That’s what the Marin County-based Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers wants to do with the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, known as SMART. So do the Gallahers, a powerful Wine Country family, who oppose the train so much that they paid to publish a hardcover book full of arguments against it — and have spent millions of dollars in the past six years campaigning against public funding for it.
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The Gallahers’ effort now faces a public referendum in Sonoma and Marin counties in the form of Measure B in the June primary.
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A yes vote would extend an existing ¼-cent sales tax to expand and fund SMART, which would keep the train running until 2059. A no vote would effectively kill the line.
Kingston Cole, a coalition consultant, told the........