The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors voted yesterday to put a $980 million bond on the November ballot that would use a property tax to retrofit the rail system.
The annual tax of approximately $7 per $100,000 of a property's assessed value would be levied over the life of the bond, according to BART officials.
Officials said the bond is a timely and necessary measure, as studies have shown the high likelihood of at least a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hitting the Bay Area by 2032.
In BART's 2002 Earthquake Safety Program study, two panels of independent geologists and engineers found that a massive quake could shut down the rail system for more than two years, and cost more than $15 billion to rebuild.
Other negative side effects of a BART disaster identified in the study included making the evening commute from Oakland to Concord about five times longer, adding approximately 310,000 driving trips to area roadways, and causing a $3.4 billion loss in worker productivity.
"When you boil it down, the average property owner will pay less for this bond than they do to fill up their vehicle with gas, or buy a ticket to a Bay Area theme park, or even take their family out to the movies," said BART Director Lynette Sweet in a prepared statement.
"Meanwhile, the bond revenues would prevent massive gridlock, save lives and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in BART rebuilding costs should a major earthquake rock the Bay Area," she said.
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