our consideration. we expect to see those results in november, and scenario-level results in december. mtc and abag will do a round of public outreach in january. by march, we will have gone to the different scenarios that the regional agencies plan to adopt by may. so far, we have some -- we have heard some level of input. we posted a directors forum that we had on september 21. we heard some input from the public and advocates at that meeting that is largely reflected in what you heard today. we will be having a leadership roundtable meeting for an opportunity for our san francisco representatives on the regional agencies to discuss these proposals with staff from mtc and abag. the next item you'll see here at this committee is seeking

approval of the list of our financially-constrained transportation priorities either later this year or early next year. the action we are seeking is to approve our wine bay area block grant advocacy principles. i am happy to answer any questions. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. colleagues, i do not know if you have questions. but i want to thank you for the ways you have tried to incorporate as much community input as possible. i think it makes sense for us to speak with one voice. i know that commissioner wiener and i are working closely to make sure that we do that with respect to anything involving the mtc, and the same is happening in terms of my colleagues who serve on abag. thank you for that. let's open the up to public comment. any member of the public who

would like to speak on this item, please come forward. >> good morning. san francisco bicycle coalition. i'd also want to express appreciation to the staff of the agencies. this has been a great process, so far very inclusive. i have been fortunate to participate in some of the conversations, and it really is also very heartening to see san francisco come forward with a coherent and policy positive voice. as staff have told you, san francisco does not really get ahead or behind here. why should we care about the proposal? well, because we need to exert our leadership in the region. i am pleased to have both of our mtc commissioners here today. it is heartening to have such a good presence of the mtc, and we have a great obligation to lead the reach and and and to help other counties in maine not have

come as far as we have to do the right thing. it is a pity. this one bay area grant is only 3% of the discretionary portion of the rtp, and that is even a tiny fraction of the whole bag of money. hundreds of billions of dollars. we, the san francisco bicycle coalition, would love to see this kind of policy conditioning applied to the whole bag of money. this is a tiny step, but we need to take this step. on behalf of the bicycle coalition and many other advocates, we hope you will support this, move this forward, and have san francisco assert leadership in the region. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> supervisors, let me stick with san francisco. so the way i would like you all

who represents san francisco to look at this grant money is first to really study our housing element. and then we get some of the major transportation projects that we have already done in our city. ford semel, we spent $700 million on the third street light rail. it starts at fourth and king and ends in the middle of nowhere. and about 30,000 homes are planned in the future. we would like to seek what type of transportation goes up to hunters view, what type of transportation goods to candlestick pond, and how that will be achieved to address quality of life issues. i like when people talk about green in about a carbon footprint and they do not know

exactly what they're talking about. so i challenge the mayor. i challenged the future mayors. i challenge the department of environment to gather critical data on the gas being spewed from mission bay all the way to hunters point and across candlestick point. some 200,000 tons of methane gas. 1 ton of methane gas, it was 22 tons of carbon dioxide. that is empirical data. i would like to see the mickey mousing about the carbon footprint, and that is in san francisco. having said that, we need to make a decision whether in the future we are going to be for affordable housing or market rate housing. just like when we had proposition f, of which i am a

proponent, and then we got out of proposition f. at that time, we said we want 50% affordable housing. and if we had all our plans ready, we could have participated with the stimulus that and plan. but we had some supervisor's here who brought in -- [bell rings] brought other type of crap into this situation which was uncalled for. but today we see our nation has been destroyed by goldman sacks, jpmorgan, chase, bernie madoff, and other stocks type of people who have destroyed our economy. let us be realistic -- [bell rings] supervisor avalos: is there any the other member of the public would like to speak?

seeing none, public comment is closed two colleagues, can we approve the recommendation and the principles? we have a motion and a second. can we take that without objection? thank you. thank you again to staff for the great work on this item. madam clerk, please call item number 6. >> update on the central subway project. this is an information item. >> good morning. i am the project management and oversight consultant. briefly, a little background on the central subway. as you all know, this is the second phase of the light rail project runs to chinatown. it has three stations. ona little bit of historic background here, the last year

and a half has been very busy for the project. last year, the authorized final design. in march of that year, the budget was adopted of 1.7 $8 billion. the board has allocated funds on a $84.6 million in prop k. the latest was in july of this year when $57.2 million was allocated for the early construction of the project. with all expenditures, it is $136.8 million. on september 19, mta submitted to the fta the request for full funding grant agreement. this was a very important

milestone to the project. the full funding agreement is basically the document by which the federal element commits funding to the project, a total funding of $942 million, of which $849 million remains. that agreement is expected in january of this coming year. we all have been hearing the uncertainties that are happening in congress about funding and issues. and even though, as we all know, nothing in life is far short except that and taxes, we're very confident that the project will receive funding from the fta. it is well to note that it is the highest rated project in the program that is waiting for full funding grant agreements.

and one of the criteria, one of the most important criteria used in the project is the use of benefit criteria. how much will the public get from the project? right now, the project is at a critical junction. it is basically under final design. and at the same time, it is undergoing the early construction phase. they are overlapping. the three design packages, one of them is now complete. the design for the stations is 70% complete. and the systems, 43%. that is our mission earlier. the project is undergoing early construction. there is relocation in the areas of yerba buena and most ghani station.

that is done -- and mosconi station. that is done. i am sure you have noticed what is going on in union square and the locations in that area. supervisor campos: let me say something about that. how long is that were going to last? in terms of the public and what the public will see, i think it would be good for us to give members of the public a sense of what that is going to look like. >> right now, there are discussions for accelerating the work so they can complete that portion of the work of around union square just before the moratorium starts at thanksgiving. so if that happens, there will be mostly out of that area by then. however, after that, construction starts on the tunnel portion of it. so there is going to be activity

there for a while. the tunnels contract was awarded in june to a joint venture at $233 million, $13 million under the estimate. it is a major construction project for the -- for the project. each contract has three separate notices to proceed. the first one, which will be any day now in october, is for the procurement of the tunnel boring machines. the second one, which is expected sometime in january, will be for the construction of the access pit for the machine. and it also includes the end

walls for the stations, which was referring to earlier, activity in the union square area. the final notice to proceed will be up for the full funding agreement from the fta, net should be sometime in june of next year. in the area of real estate, two sides have to be acquired. the one in chinatown is already in escrow. the one in yerba buena-missoni station, they are finalizing negotiations. at the same time, three easements need to be acquired and agreements have been drafted. there will be a decision in july. also in the area of realistic,

eight out of 19 residential units have been relocated. mostly in the building in chinatown. three out of eight businesses that need to be relocated have also been relocated. here you have in front of you the original milestones. we have talked about some of them already. but as you see, to proceed for the union square station, it is expected in september, a year from now, surely followed by the chinatown station and the most ghani station. construction is not scheduled to be completed by november 2017, and they will be in service in december 2018. here you have your funding plan, 1.57 $8 million.

as i mentioned earlier, the economy situation, but that the federal level and the state level is costing a certain level of anxiety, i will say. however, the mta and staff have been working productively to look at ways in which any delay or shortfall could be addressed, working with mta, working together to advocate for any fallback position in in case they are needed. that concludes my presentation. i am if available for questions, and the joint program manager for the subway is also here. supervisor campos: thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? let's open it up to public comment. if any member of the public would like to speak on this

item, please come forward. >> supervisors, what i would like to see here is this, we learned a lot from what happened on third street. we learned a lot. and we still have time not to repeat the mistakes that were made on third street. now, we have people, political people, that are convincing some of the constituents that are going to deliver a project that in reality is not going to happen in a concrete way. it is not going to happen. i was in washington, d.c., and i met some people, and they told

me -- it is our politicians to do not trust, and they told me how they would work to adversely impact this project. i did not give them my frank opinion. and the reason why did not give them my friend the opinion is because -- my frank opinion is because when we're word deliberating on the third street light rail, we were told one thing and another thing has been happening. the third street light rail is not working for the people. scheduling, safety, and so on and so forth. now, there are pros and cons, but you, representatives, should really find out from the engineering people what exactly

is going to happen with this project. there are some astute san franciscans, just because they are speaking the truth, people are against them. there are some s due to -- astute city officials who know a lot about this. they have access to the blueprints. they have access to the engineering data. they speak the truth and people are against them. at a meeting like this, no real education can be done. but we have to put the san francisco county transportation authority -- [bell ring] and other consultants on notice that mickey mouse type of operations, when the budget has increased by leaps and bounds, cannot be tolerated in san francisco in this dire economic time.

and you have got to do that, because we have people who are hurting. thank you very much. supervisor campos: thank you. is there any of a member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, any questions? ok, this is an informational item. >> item 7, introduction of new items. >> good morning. deputy for planning. just a quick item under new items to let you know that the van ness environmental document will be released imminently, on november 4. we intended to do a presentation today. sorry, we were waiting for final comments. fortunately, we did get those comments. there very easy to deal with. we will be incorporating their

comments in releasing the environmental document in early november for the public hearing scheduled for november 30, 6:00 p.m., and we have all this information on our website. we will certainly do a full update to the committee next month. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. colleagues, any questions? is there any member of the public who would like to speak on the introduction of new items? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item number 8, public comment. supervisor campos: this is for any member of the public to back to speak on any item that is not on the agenda but is in the jurisdiction of the committee. seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 9, adjournment. supervisor campos: meeting adjourned. thank you.

>> i'm melissa griffin, i write about city politics and a member of the league of women voters. i am here to discuss a proposition g, voters will be faced with on november's valid. -- ballot.

proposition g would increase the sales tax rate by 0.5% for a total tax rate of 9%. this would only happen if the state does not increase the sales tax by either 1% before november 30, 2011 or 0.75% before january 1, 2015. the city would pass a tax increase to pay for public safety programs and the other half for programs for children and seniors. the city will start collecting this additional sales tax on april 1, 2012. it would apply for 10 years. prior to july 1, san francisco had the sales tax rate of 9.5%. the city decreased by 1% when it allowed to expire. san francisco only gets a fraction of this 8.5% sales tax.

7.25% goes to this day, the city receiving about 1%. -- goes to the state, the city receiving about 1%. i'm here with -- thank you for being here. please tell us why you are in favor of proposition g. >> i believe the low income children, seniors, firefighters, and police officers are worth half a cent. it will restore funding that was cut from these programs. proposition g " restore $30 million so the children will have a better start in life and

a better chance of succeeding in high school and college. >> san francisco has one of the highest sales tax rates. are you concerned that the passage will affect our tourism or adversely affect the economics? >> i am not concerned with that at all. tourism accounts for 40% of the revenue. it will still be lower than the sales tax prior to july 1 of this year. >> my understanding is that it will be eliminated if the state raise the sales tax within the next year. in light of that, palace of the city is able to plan, budget, and expect those revenues if it passes. >> that's a good question. it is about local control. they can decide where their tax dollars go, in light of lack of

leadership of politicians in sacramento, but we are not counting on that type of leadership occurring any time soon. it would be helpful that the politicians will listen to the need of san franciscans and act accordingly when they enacted the next sales tax. up next, we will be talking with an opponent. i'm here with howard, former chairman of the san francisco republican party. he is an opponent of proposition g. thank you for being here. why should voters vote against proposition g? >> in this age of high unemployment and high high unemployment -- of high unemployment, a regressive

sales tax will hurt everyone. just to give you an idea, in 2000, the budget was $4.2 billion. in 2010, the 2011 budget is 6.8 $3 billion. that is more than the budget -- $6.83 billion. that is more than the budget of any other states. if you look at the way city hall is, there is over 100 commissions, boards, advisory boards, so on and so forth that overlap. they can combine a lot of them and save a lot of money. >> in light of the fact that this tax has already been proposed, it recently expired.

how can you see consequences as a result of increasing the sales tax just .5%. >> it takes money away from the people that needed them most. if you are an upper-middle-class person, it won't harm you. but on lower end, it does harm you. that is why we should not pass if. >> proponents say that we have to do this to offset the tax at the state level. how do you propose that the city deal with the extraordinary budget cuts that i've come from the state? >> proponent to are mostly public employees and employees of nonprofits will have you believe the sky is falling if they don't get this raised. if they go back to 0 base budgeting, do good budgeting,

good management, they have plenty of money to run the city. >> we hope that that was helpful. for information on ballot measures, visit the web site of the league of women voters at sfvotes.org. early voting is available at city hall monday through friday 8:00 a.m. to 8 5:00 p.m. 8:00 a.m. to 8 5:00 p.m. if you don't vote early, vote on

>> proposition a would authorize the san francisco unified school district to issue bonds to repair and upgrade more than 50 school facilities. property taxes could be increased if needed to pay the principal and interest on these bonds. the bond funds would be used to repair and replace major building systems including electrical, heating wat, water, security, and fire sprinklers. remove hazardous materials. improve accessibility for people with disabilities. make necessary seismic upgrades. replace permanent strucre