Quick Take
The vision of better transit is worth pursuing, but not if it deepens inequities in South County, writes Tony Nuñez, a longtime Watsonville activist, journalist and board president of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District. True progress means tapping into Watsonville’s potential so our city can finally shape its own future, he writes. He supports the rail trail, but says the tax should be lower for those with fewer means.
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Watsonville schools are hemorrhaging students. Our small businesses are struggling to survive.
Our local health care system is fraying at the seams. Our residents can’t afford to buy homes in the community they grew up in.
Our best and brightest have few reasons to come back home after college. And our most vulnerable are about to fall deeper into poverty because of federal budget cuts.
So, as a longtime Watsonville resident who cares deeply for my neighbors and the future of our city, I am disappointed that some of my representatives on the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) did not bat an eye at a proposed funding mechanism for the Coastal Rail Trail: a 2.25% countywide sales tax increase that would disproportionately impact Watsonville residents.
I want to make something clear: I am not against the concept of the rail trail project. Expanded transit options, reduced reliance on Highway 1 and better regional connectivity are all goals I support. But as proposed, the funding mechanism would help us take a step toward the future while simultaneously dealing a devastating blow to the very community it claims to serve.
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At the RTC’s recent meeting, one Watsonville representative dismissed the impacts of the proposed sales tax as “short-term fears.” That phrase reveals a troubling reliance on utilitarian thinking: the belief that the ends justify the means. The “end” in this case might be worthwhile, but the “means” they are prepared to impose — a massive, regressive tax that will fall hardest on our most vulnerable residents — cannot be brushed aside as a temporary inconvenience.
For working families, seniors and low-income residents in Watsonville, every added cost is another push toward displacement.
This is not an abstract fear. Watsonville sits in the most expensive housing market in the nation. A 2.25% increase would place our sales tax rate among the highest in the country. The impact would be particularly severe in South County, where household incomes are significantly lower than in North County cities like Santa Cruz or Scotts Valley.
Many families here are already living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to cover rent, transportation, child care and basic necessities. For low- and moderate-income families — who spend a larger portion of their income on taxable goods — this increase is not a “short-term fear.” It is a direct, disproportionate hit to their budgets, widening the economic gap between north and south and deepening inequities in access to opportunity.
I have seen many dear friends forced to leave our city because they could no longer afford to stay. With each departure we not only lose our neighbors, but teachers, farmworkers, health care providers and small business owners. This tax would accelerate that trend, weakening our already fragile schools, hollowing out our struggling economy and fraying the community we’ve built over generations.
And to what end?
According to the RTC’s own projections, the Watsonville and Pajaro segments of the rail line would serve at most 800 people a day when fully operational in 2045. Many of these residents would still need to own a car or pay for the bus to get to the station and to their final destination.
I am not opposed to public transit investment — far from it — but this project, as currently funded, would deliver limited benefit to South County while placing a disproportionate burden on its residents.
This is where the equity problem becomes unavoidable.
If the benefits of a project are uncertain or unevenly distributed, yet the costs fall hardest on those with the least ability to pay, the means are flawed. A locally elected representative’s role is not to simply push policy and visions forward, but to recognize imbalance and work toward a fairer path forward for all.
I recognize the arguments for urgency, but urgency cannot excuse inequity. Acting quickly does not absolve us from ensuring solutions are just. Equity must remain at the center of this conversation.
Instead of funneling millions out of Watsonville households for a project that will serve relatively few here, we should be directing investments into South County itself. If the true goal is to improve transportation and opportunity, the most effective path is reducing the need for long commutes in the first place.
Let’s flip the conversation from how to more efficiently move people northbound, to how we can build opportunity in Watsonville that can keep people here.
Watsonville residents have repeatedly approved local tax measures to invest in their community when the solutions address urgent needs with clear, equitable benefits. This project would not do that. A 2.25% sales tax in Watsonville would generate about $23 million a year, considering a 0.5% tax brings in roughly $5 million.
That means this proposal would take an estimated $20-$23 million from Watsonville residents every year to fund a tourism-powered rail project that reinforces Watsonville’s role as a bedroom community for Santa Cruz and other cities. That status quo has held us back for decades and limited our region’s potential as well.
Imagine if, instead of funneling these funds away, we retained even a fraction of them with a much smaller tax to establish an economic development office that can make lasting progress on the issues that matter most. We could invest in health care infrastructure, improve access to higher education, expand local job training programs, fund small business loans, provide technical assistance to kick-start startups and create transportation solutions that connect people to opportunity and services right here in Watsonville.
Unlocking Watsonville’s potential through self-determination wouldn’t just strengthen our city, it would benefit our entire region.
If our goal is truly equity, the question we should be asking is: access to what, exactly, are we improving for Watsonville residents? If the answer is “access to jobs and services outside our community,” then we are solving the wrong problem. True progress means building opportunity here, so residents can live, work and thrive in Watsonville without long, expensive commutes.
I care deeply about Watsonville. I have fought and advocated for my community for more than a decade. If this project drives out the people it’s meant to help, it won’t strengthen Watsonville — it will weaken it. Any path forward must be grounded in equity, which means either exempting Watsonville residents from this tax or setting a much lower rate.
So I will end where I began: I support the vision of the Coastal Rail Trail. I believe in better transit, cleaner air and stronger regional connections. But I oppose this funding mechanism because it takes the most from those with the least, offers the least to those who give the most, and continues Watsonville’s reliance on Santa Cruz for its success.
We can and must do better because a just future is one we can all afford to live in.
Tony Nuñez, a longtime Watsonville resident and Mexican immigrant, is an award-winning journalist and community advocate who currently serves as board president of the Pajaro Valley Health Care District, advancing health access and equity.