SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California legislature today (Sept. 13, 2025) passed a bill allowing a ballot measure for a sales tax in five Bay Area counties to help fund public transit in the area.
SB 63, introduced by state Sens. Scott Wiener and Jesse Arreguin, would place the measure on the November 2026 ballot. It would provide operating funding for the region’s major transit operators — Caltrain, BART, San Francisco Muni, and AC Transit — as well as smaller agencies, and would address the ongoing funding deficits faced by the agencies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Passage of that bill comes a day after passage of another bill, SB 105, that calls for the state Department of Finance to consider a “loan or other financing options that might be used to provide sufficient short-term state financial assistance for local transit agencies.” The news site The Oaklandside reports there is a Jan. 10 deadline to address that financing.
Both bills must still be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In a press release, Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard called SB 64 “critical for Caltrain and other Bay Area transit systems. … Thanks to electrification, we’re seeing our ridership grow faster than ever before because of the faster, more frequent, and more reliable service. Without SB 63, we risk having to make service cuts that would put those gains at risk and push more cars back onto already congested roads.”
The financing called for under SB 105 replaces a provision for a $750 million loan that had been included in a June budget bill, but has not been completed because final terms could not be reached [see “Loan to maintain San Francisco Bay Area transit …,” Trains.com, Sept. 7, 2025]. The loan is intended to provide funding until from the November 2026 initiative becomes available starting in 2027.
Hey Charles, in the bay area there seems to be a mish mash of transit funding, you have bridge tolls that cover some costs, property taxes that cover others and then various city and state funding that are covered by other income taxes. A little off topic but if some of these transit systems were merged there could be some management savings (like that will ever happen)
This is a good way to fund local transit. If enough voters want it, then it will pass. If it does pass and the local Transit Authority treats it like a never ending piggy bank, then the voters can withhold their support down the road when they will be undoubtedly asked to increase the tax.
I think we each need more education on funding. As we each know, public transportation is tax subsidized at the daily operational level. As these subsidy sources become more stressed with increasing expenses and less than overwhelming fare box revenue, then we need a second-level look-see at what the tax sources consist of.
I looked up whatever I could find on MBTA as its one of the systems I’m most familiar with and the only one I was ever a daily commuter (summer of 1969, between semesters of grad school in Michigan).
According to what I could find, there is no local sales tax as such. MBTA’s biggest subsidy is from the Commonwealth, which dedicates 20% of the statewide sales tax revenue (one percentage point of five) to MBTA.
The second biggest subsidy is assessing the district’s176 cities and towns (almost exactly half the 351 cities and towns statewide). For the cynical among us (like me) we see that the MBTA district isn’t about transportation coordination or planning or any of those things, it’s about collecting money.
What I don’t know is the exact formula for what city or town pays how much. Two factors are obvious. (1) A town at the fringe of the district doesn’t want to pay very much, as just across the town line is a town that pays nothing. (2) The core munis are more reliant on transit, cities like Boston, Cambridge and Quincy, or towns like Brookline, Dedham and Norwood, compared to the outer munis.
Finally, a related note. During these internet searches I ran across a tables of daily ridership of the different systems. (Different tables for transit and for commuter rail.) New York is very high. As you go down the list, some of the systems have anemic ridership. BART seems low on the number of riders but would look a lot better on passenger miles as the system runs fast over long distances.
Question for Bay Area readers: Is this proposed sales tax to be the first dedicated transit tax? If so, how are these agencies funded as of now?