CA: Marin, Sonoma send SMART tax renewal to June ballot

Six years after SMART’s high-stakes tax extension failed to meet the two-thirds majority to pass, Marin and Sonoma voters will have another chance to decide the future course of the endangered rail agency.

This time, the proposed 30-year extension of the quarter-cent sales tax supporting the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will require only a simple majority of the vote to win. The citizens’ initiative — which lowers the approval threshold — has been endorsed by officials in both counties.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors voted on Feb. 24 to place the measure on the June 2 ballot. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors did the same on Tuesday.

“There continues to be a tremendous amount of momentum and success at SMART, with expanding ridership, building out our multiuse path, adding stations in Petaluma and Windsor and a fully-funded expansion to Healdsburg,” said Eric Lucan, a Marin supervisor and member of the SMART board.

“This aligns with our legislative platform of reducing vehicle miles traveled and adding benefit to the broader community, including transit for our older population, youth to get to school and our workforce that commutes,” he said.

Ahead of the Tuesday vote, Sonoma Supervisor Chris Coursey, chair of the SMART board, said that the agency has survived a recall attempt, a global recession, wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now doing better than ever.

“The SMART train is on a roll — let’s keep it going,” Coursey said.

Marin and Sonoma voters passed the quarter-cent sales tax in 2008 to fund the construction and operation of a 70-mile passenger rail line between Larkspur and Cloverdale, along with a bicycle and pedestrian path parallel to the railroad.

Today, SMART runs trains between Larkspur and Windsor and has about 40 miles of path. SMART has approved contracts for an extension to Healdsburg, and plans are developing to take the railroad to Cloverdale.

The tax collects about half of the agency’s annual revenue, or about $51 million. It is set to expire in 2029. Without a renewal, or some other saving grace, the agency would be forced to cease operations.

In 2020, a SMART measure for a 30-year extension failed after an expensive and contentious campaign fight. The measure had 54% in favor, but it required two-thirds to pass.

The need for a tax renewal has been hanging over the heads of SMART officials.

In late 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a bill that clarified that voters in the two counties are empowered to seek a citizens’ initiative, which lowers the voter approval threshold from a two-thirds majority to 50% plus one vote.

A coalition of SMART supporters announced the initiative campaign last year and began signature collections over the summer. The group filed its petition with a raw count of 71,851 signatures in November.

Elections officials notified the campaign in December that the petition had qualified. In January, the SMART board of directors recommended placing the initiative on the June ballot.

“I am proud to see the SMART renewal measure officially on the ballot,” said Suzanne Smith, chair of the SMART initiative committee and former executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.

“We are incredibly happy with the success of the signature-gathering drive and stand ready to support SMART connecting communities for another 30 years,” she said.

Critics of the agency have said that SMART hasn’t lived up to its promises to reach projected ridership and reduce highway traffic.

In the past year, SMART reported more than 1.1 million passengers, a 33% increase over the previous year, which was largely attributed to two pilot programs to let youths and seniors ride free. The programs are set to continue through June.

According to data released by the agency, free-fare trips for youth equaled an estimated 292,158 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. For seniors in that same time period, there were an estimated 191,027 trips.

The remaining 640,501 trips, or 57%, were paying adults.

San Rafael resident Mark Gainer called SMART a “polluting, inefficient mode of transportation,” saying that most trains are empty and that traffic near the downtown San Rafael Transit Center backs up daily.

“Citizens have already wasted millions of dollars if not billions on this boondoggle,” Gainer said. “Let’s cut our losses now rather than spending millions more on taxes.”

Another complaint is that the per-passenger subsidy is too high, and continuing the tax is unjustifiable.

For the fiscal year ending in 2025, the per-passenger subsidy was $31.27. That’s down 20% from $39.27 in 2024, and down 30% from $44.97 in 2023.

“All forms of public transit are subsidized, because the benefits extend well beyond the fare paid by an individual rider,” said Julia Gonzalez, spokesperson for the agency. “This is not unique to public transit – public safety, school districts and library services are other examples of publicly subsidized services, often via voter approval.”

Gonzalez said that SMART trips on average are about 21 miles, much longer than bus trips. Therefore the per-passenger subsidy is not a fair marker, she said. Instead, SMART officials prefer tracking the per-passenger-mile subsidy, which they say more accurately reflects the true cost.

In fiscal year-ending 2025, SMART calculated the per passenger mile traveled to be $1.50. As ridership increases, cost efficiency improves, Gonzalez said.

From July 1 to the end of January, there were a total of 793,670 riders, a 10.7% increase over the 2019 figures for the same time period, the agency reported.

Trend projections suggest a potential 24.5% increase in ridership for this year to about 1.4 million trips, Gonzalez said. The subsidy per passenger mile is projected to be $1.40, a 6.7% reduction compared to $1.50 last year.

For comparison, the per passenger mile in fiscal year-ending 2024 was $4.42 for Golden Gate Transit and $2.88 for Golden Gate Ferry, according to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, the agency that manages both.

That same year, Marin Transit saw a per passenger mile subsidy of $2.36, according to a SMART report.

Robert Betts, general manager of Marin Transit, said the agency does not track mile subsidies per passenger. The average per-passenger subsidy was $11.38 in the fiscal year ending in 2025. The figure includes its public transit service, its door-to-door paratransit services and school bus and Muir Woods shuttle.

Preliminary numbers for 2025 from the Golden Gate Bridge District show that the per passenger mile cost is decreasing. Draft calculations suggest it is $4.07 for Golden Gate Transit, and $2.67 for the ferry.

© 2026 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.).
Visit www.marinij.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.