A large coalition of politicians, community leaders and public transit advocates gathered in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza on Friday morning in support of a petition-signing drive for a ballot measure that could provide long-term funding for transportation operators at risk of drastic cuts to their services.
The state legislature last year authorized putting a sales tax on the November 2026 ballot via Senate Bill 63, also known as the Connect Bay Area Act, but local leaders at Friday’s rally urged citizens to sign a petition that would make it easier to pass the tax.
In California, a voter-approved regional measure for a new sales tax would normally require a two-thirds majority approval if the Legislature directly places it on a ballot. Transit advocates, however, have begun collecting signatures to make the sales tax a citizen-initiated ballot measure that would lower the threshold to a simple majority of votes cast and avoid the need for supermajority approval.
If approved by local voters, it would establish a 14-year sales tax on retail transactions that would be used to fund transit operators in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara.
State and federal emergency funds were made available for public transit operators after COVID-19 caused a drastic decline in ridership. Agencies traditionally relied on passenger fares for operating income, but that model is struggling to keep up and those emergency funds that helped cover costs are set to expire by the end of June this year.
Btw few of these "advocates" are real advocates - most of them are hired "astroturfers".
Real advocates would know that BART is highly overfunded and completely mismanaged.
Just look at the San Jose tunnel project where the costs have tripled before they even put one shovel into the ground. The reason being that they used the most expensive design and extended the tunnel past Diridon Station. On that small stretch between Santa Clara and Diridon you have now three or four public transit agencies competing for ridership: BART, Caltrain, light rail and VTA buses.
And instead of extending it from the Berryessa Station to Downtown first to have a segment they can use - they just started in the EAST, so it will take years and years till anything can be used here and create revenue.
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(2) comments
Btw few of these "advocates" are real advocates - most of them are hired "astroturfers".
Real advocates would know that BART is highly overfunded and completely mismanaged.
Just look at the San Jose tunnel project where the costs have tripled before they even put one shovel into the ground. The reason being that they used the most expensive design and extended the tunnel past Diridon Station. On that small stretch between Santa Clara and Diridon you have now three or four public transit agencies competing for ridership: BART, Caltrain, light rail and VTA buses.
And instead of extending it from the Berryessa Station to Downtown first to have a segment they can use - they just started in the EAST, so it will take years and years till anything can be used here and create revenue.
Gerd -- that's a serious accusation. How do you know the advocates were hired to participate in the gathering?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.