CA: Newsom signs law to authorize Bay Area transit sales tax

The economic life raft that Bay Area transit agencies so desperately need is on its way from Sacramento, now bearing Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature.

On Monday, Newsom signed Senate Bill 63 by state Sens. Scott Wiener, D- San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguin, D- Berkeley, which will authorize leaders in five Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara — to put a sales tax measure for transit on the ballot next year.

Set at a default rate of a half cent in each county except San Francisco, where the rate would rise to one cent, the tax could provide a critical funding reservoir for agencies that face widening deficits. With COVID emergency bailouts set to dry up, and ridership largely plateauing after an incremental recovery since the pandemic, officials at agencies say they have hit a fiscal cliff.

Beginning next year, Muni will confront a deficit of $322 million, while BART projects a funding gap of up to $400 million annually in 2027.

Without a new sustained source of revenue, these operators would have to resort to devastating cuts. Muni would slash the frequency of service by 50% on many lines. BART would close stations and possibly run trains as seldom as once an hour.

"The Bay Area runs on transit, and this measure will allow it to keep running for many years to come," Wiener said in a statement, cautioning that riders and operators still have "a long road ahead. Introducing the bill in March, he and Arreguin had conjured visions of catastrophic service cuts that would further dissuade people from riding buses or trains, sending the whole public transportation system into a death spiral.

In California, regional agencies, including transportation operators, need the state to sign off before they can put a tax measure to voters. Thus the Legislature periodically passes what may seem like perfunctory bills, such as the one in 2018 that paved the way for Bay Area voters to approve bridge toll hikes.

© 2025 the San Francisco Chronicle.
Visit www.sfchronicle.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.