SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A single donor has contributed more than $500,000 to an effort to block a sales-tax extension to fund Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit service, and has indicated willingness to double that amount, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports.
Molly Gallaher Flater, daughter of Sonoma County developer Bill Gallaher, is funding the effort to defeat the ballot initiative to fund the rail service, which would raise more than $2.4 billion over 30 years.
“If I end up spending $1 million to save our community taxpayers from a $2.4 billion mistake then I feel it is worth every penny,” Flater said in a written statement to the newspaper.
Ads opposing the ballot initiative, Measure I, began running this week, three weeks before ballots go to voters, and just as supporters began their ad campaign.
SMART officials and supporters say defeat of the measure could mean the end of the less than 3-year-old system, which has cost $653 million to build.
“I just think it’s a devastating blow to this community if somehow we pulled the plug on the SMART system at this critical time. It’s just unfathomable,” U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, told the paper. “The idea of walking away from all of that is so profoundly wrongheaded, I almost don’t even know where to begin. We’ll just have to work a little bit harder to overcome, but I think we’ll do it.”
