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.
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