In 2020, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) announced that most of the Measure B half-cent sales tax increase over the next ten years would go toward extending BART further into San Jose at the expense of other transportation projects that would benefit residents elsewhere in the County.
Contending that the plan failed to mitigate traffic congestion and undermined public trust, Supervisor Simitian introduced a resolution opposing VTA's proposed scenario, which was unanimously supported by the County Board of Supervisors. The approved resolution called on the VTA Board of Directors, of which he was a sitting member, to support a new plan to distribute funds more evenly over the next decade among all nine transportation programs, thereby ensuring Countywide benefits as promised in the 2016 ballot measure. That goal was achieved at the December 2021 VTA Board of Directors meeting.
