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A proposed tax to support Bay Area public transit was certified Tuesday to go on the California general election ballot this November.
The Connect Bay Area initiative, if approved by a majority of voters, would implement a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara, as well as a one-cent sales tax in San Francisco to help fund local transit agencies.
A petition for the measure collected an estimated 241,964 valid signatures, exceeding the threshold to qualify for the ballot, according to the Public Transit Revenue Measure District, the regional entity established by the state law that also authorized the measure to go in front of voters.
“We are incredibly proud of the work of our broad coalition and the largest transit grassroots effort the Bay Area has ever seen to qualify this measure,” wrote Connect Bay Area campaign spokesperson Jeff Cretan in a statement.
Exceeding the signature threshold means the measure would be put on the ballot by a citizen initiative. Because of this, the measure will only require a simple majority to pass instead of a two-thirds supermajority.
The proposed tax comes as public transit agencies in the region face severe budget shortfalls in the current fiscal year. BART is $376 million in the red, while the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has a deficit of $307 million. If the measure passes, almost two-thirds of the projected $1 billion in revenue would go toward operating costs.
If the measure fails, BART would cut up to 70% of service, Caltrain would shut down weekend and evening service, Muni would eliminate at least 20 routes and Alameda-Contra Costa Transit would cut at least 16% of service, according to the transit agencies.
“Passing this measure will prevent catastrophic transit service cuts and help deliver affordable, efficient transit across the entire Bay Area,” Cretan said.
This story was written by Kayla Chan for Bay City News Service.
If the measure fails, you would be 70% less likely to be waiting by car at the railroad crossing/intersection for the train to pass.
It would be a shame to let this infrastructure deteriorate due to lack of use. Also much of the lost ridership will show up on the roads. I expect transit will benefit from the ill-conceived BTO movement.
Infrastructure is maintained by freight, it has been since the 70’s when Nixon split passengers and freight, and is why we will never have high speed rail in the USA. If California manages to actually build anything, by the time its done, it will need to be repaired on the oldest built sections, likely they will just turn the whole project over to freight. After all it was never about providing service, it was about unions jobs and organizations (lawyers).
As for the electric component, I assume that does need to be maintained, but since Newsom chose to not to split/bankrupt PGE after the fires, our electricity rates will forever be the highest in the nation.
As for ridership, its not coming back, its not efficient or cheap, just like travel by ship, it will only be a novelty. As for the population, its in decline, H1B visas aren’t being approved for the low level positions anymore. In fact in the companies I’ve been in, they are increasingly hiring them remotely and they stay in their home country for coding positions. Were also not getting a net influx of companies into the bay area, with the latest round of tax proposals, if they pass things will get much worse and new high potential companies will not form here in California.