The East Bay Express is criticizing a poll the parent company of the San Jose Mercury News funded which found that 62% of San Jose residents favored moving the A’s to San Jose.

The Express says the Merc didn’t tell respondents that taxpayers would have to pay more than $46 million to make improvements that A’s owner Lew Wolff is demanding in order to move the team. The Express asks:

So why didn’t the pollster ask a more realistic question? Such as, “Would you support giving the A’s public land that the city paid $46 million to acquire, plus spend tens of millions of dollars more in redevelopment funds for infrastructure needed for the team’s new stadium — as long as it does not include raising taxes?” The answer is obvious. Because they never would have gotten 62% of residents to say yes.

The Express points out that the poll was conducted by San Jose State University’s highly respected Survey and Policy Research Institute, but it was paid for by the Bay Area News Group, a division of the newspaper chain MediaNews, which owns the Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune, and the Contra Costa Times. The Express says:

The newspaper chain also put together the slanted wording of the poll — not San Jose State. Which leads one to believe that the owners of Oakland’s hometown daily may not mind a bit if the A’s move to a city where it also owns a newspaper.