Give voters an opportunity to fund transit

Joe, my letter was in response to state Sen. Josh Becker’s guest perspective, “Transit in the Bay Area” (Aug. 23) in which he addressed “a looming fiscal cliff that threatened to degrade the Bay Area’s public transit operations and cut service.”

Becker had co-authored SB 532 that would have hiked tolls on seven Bay Area bridges by $1.50 for five years to address the transit crisis. The bill was paused two days earlier. The senator called for “discussions across the Bay Area caucus on any possible alternatives.”

My letter proposed an alternative that, remarkably, has been available to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for 26 years — they can write a ballot measure to ask motorists to pay a very small increase in the gas tax to fund public transit.

I would suggest that the Legislature amend AB 598 (V. Brown, 1997) to include a small annual registration fee applicable only to electric vehicles registered in the nine-county Bay Area comparable to what the average internal combustion engine vehicle would pay in the up-to 10 cents per gallon gas tax so that all motorists help keep public transit afloat in these challenging times.

Let’s give voters the opportunity to fund transit so we all have a stake in the effort.

Irvin Dawid

Burlingame