MTC’s Transportation Revenue Measure Select Committee this week held its fifth and final meeting about a potential 2026 Bay Area transportation ballot measure that aims to improve the transit rider experience and avert looming transit service cuts if new funding isn’t secured by November 2026 or earlier.
MTC Commissioner and Select Committee Chair Jim Spering noted in his introductory remarks, “There are three things a ballot measure must eventually do. It needs to generate enough revenue to address our most immediate transit shortfalls; it needs to introduce transformative changes to our transit systems that Bay Area residents have been asking for; and it needs to be a measure that voters will support, with coordination and vision.”
A majority of the Select Committee voted in support of investing at least 10 percent of the proceeds in projects and programs that transform Bay Area transit so that it delivers a more connected, affordable and reliable transit system. The Select Committee unanimously supported including accountability provisions in the measure to provide greater oversight of transit agency finances and to require that agencies receiving any new funds comply with policies developed through MTC’s Regional Network Management framework to improve the transit customer experience.
With a broad array of opinions among its members, the Select Committee kept many options on the table, but members had the chance to score key variables on a 1-5 scale so that information could be shared with the Commission. There was support for a measure including at least Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, which are each served by BART, plus an opt-in for the five other Bay Area counties.
With respect to revenue mechanism, the Select Committee voted in favor or considering a half-cent sales tax (the funding source for Scenarios 1 and 1A), as well as a potential hybrid measure that would include both a half-cent sales tax and either a parcel tax of $0.09/building square foot or a payroll tax of 0.18% (each raising approximately $500 million a year), which, in combination with the half-cent sales tax would raise some $1.5 billion annually if applied in all nine counties.
The Select Committee also voted in favor of MTC exploring a proposal developed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency that includes parcel tax for which the rate would vary across counties. Under this proposal, San Francisco, which has proportionately higher transit operating needs, would be asked to pay a higher rate than other participating counties.
There was unanimous agreement among the Select Committee’s voting members that while transit agency consolidation is worthy of further study, it is best addressed outside enabling legislation for a future transportation measure.
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Here we go: the BART bailout measure that we all knew was coming. “Disguised,” of course, by lumping it in with some funds for other transit districts.
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