Transit leaders at SamTrans, Caltrain and BART weigh priorities for possible funding: As possible sales tax measure looms, officials contemplate how it should divvy up funds

Caltrain faces an annual $75 million average deficit for the next 15 years starting in fiscal year 2027, which begins this July, with BART facing an average $376 million annual deficit. Both agencies recently warned they could start closing their stations if they don’t receive a significant amount of external funding within the next year. 

The measure, authorized via Senate Bill 63, is a citizens’ initiative, meaning it needs to secure a certain number of signatures before it can go before voters in the upcoming election. 

Much of the revenue from the sales tax would go toward closing the rail agencies’ shortfalls, with about $50 million going directly to the county, which can be used more flexibly as part of a SamTrans-administered local investment plan.

“This is a very accelerated process,” SamTrans Chief Communications Officer Emily Beach said during a Transportation Authority meeting April 2. “We have about 10 weeks to do all the outreach that we can because we want to make sure that if the measure makes the ballot that voters will know what the local investment plan here in San Mateo County would entail.”

The measure saw some positive polling results in the county last year but has split some county and transit leaders, such as San Mateo County supervisors Jackie Speier and Ray Mueller, who have been wary of joining a regional effort that fiscally ties the county even more so to other transit operators such as BART. 

Mueller said during a recent TA board meeting that even SamTrans surveys intended to solicit feedback about where to invest the potentially $50 million were “problematic.”

“There is no description of any cons. The language isn’t dry language,” Mueller said. “This looks to me like a campaign. I have real concerns about taxpayer dollars being spent on this.”

In a previous meeting, Speier raised concerns that a lot of the funding the county may receive should go directly to operating deficits, not brand-new infrastructure projects.

Other board members were more enthusiastic about the prospect of funding large-scale projects. Mark Nagales, TA board member and South San Francisco councilmember, said he hopes to eventually see a dedicated bus-only lane on El Camino Real and more upgrades to paratransit vehicles. Noelia Corzo, TA board member and president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said she’d like to see better cross-Bay transit. 

“I still want to see a bus line going across the San Mateo Bridge,” she said. “This is for us to dream big and to think about transit in a way that we’ve been held back from doing before.”