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San Francisco’s Proposition H, a parcel tax to save Muni from financial ruin, led with 72% of the vote as the final round of votes was counted Tuesday night.
Regional Transit Measure RTM, which would increase sales taxes in five Bay Area counties to shore up BART and other regional transit, was up in five counties by a combined 62% of the vote. In San Francisco, the measure won more than 78%.
Backers of both measures, who say without them local transit systems would deteriorate and cripple the Bay Area’s economy, cheered. “Oh my God. I’m so happy,” said Manav Patel, a volunteer who said he’d been working for eight months on RTM. “The possibility of losing the Dublin line is what sparked something in me.”
In recent years, the pandemic closures and a shift to remote work emptied San Francisco’s downtown and decreased transit ridership around the Bay Area, creating a perfect storm that left both the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Bay Area Rapid Transit facing a massive fiscal crisis.
Businesses, elected officials and transit advocates put San Francisco’s Prop. H and Proposition RTM on Tuesday’s ballot through two separate signature-gathering drives.
Both measures had a broad base of support from officials across the political spectrum and faced little to no opposition spending.
Prop. H raised more than $5 million from San Francisco businesses invested in the downtown recovery, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Airbnb, Visa and Ripple. Proponents of Prop. RTM raised over $7.5 million from contributors including Salesforce, Meta and Genentech.
San Francisco’s Prop. H imposes an annual parcel tax on residential and commercial properties for 15 years, and is expected to raise $177 million a year. Rates would vary depending on property usage and size, starting at $129 per year for a single-family home, $249 for a multi-family residential property and $799 for a commercial one.
The controller’s office estimated the parcel tax would net at least 800 jobs and increase the city’s gross domestic product by at least $310 million over the next 15 years.
Regional Measure RTM imposes an additional 1% sales tax in San Francisco and a 0.5% sales tax in Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties for a 14-year period. It would raise close to $1 billion a year for local agencies, including BART, Muni, Caltrain, San Francisco Bay Ferry and AC Transit.
If RTM had not passed, BART warned that it might have to close more than a dozen stations, cut service hours by 70% and stop operating evening train service. The SFMTA laid out contingency plans if Prop. H failed that could have included cutting up to 20 Muni lines, reducing service on main lines, ending service at 9 p.m. and laying off up to 2,100 workers.
Brian Davis, a San Francisco resident who canvassed for both measures, hailed the results coming in from counties around the Bay. It would have been “tragic,” he said, to lose public transit.
Such a relief for all of us who get around by transit! (And it should be for those who don’t, even if they don’t know it.)
A little guilt tripping, a bit of fear mongering, et voila, Bay Area voters swiftly tax themselves just like so. I got to admit I thought people were smarter, but thanks for the reality check. Personally, I wouldn’t be quite so annoyed if the people in charge had shown a valid effort to go find money some place else first. What with vanity projects like HSR? How come we don’t tax ride shares and Waymo? Why are we allowing public golf courses to run at deficits? So now, we get to cover the full bill. Double the part if you’re living in San Francisco!
The ones who deserve help are all agencies except BART. BART is not needed. BART had two strikes and the world didn’t come to a crashing end. All these supporters should really ask themselves now that you have passed a bail out measure will you also support BART when they announce fare increases!
Bill, in my limited experience of local public transit, BART struck me as the system that works the best. It covers a large area and travels at speed. It serves two of the three Bay Area airports. And it helps with the housing problems by allowing SF workers to live in other counties and still get to work without driving.
We need public transit and more if it. I just wish public transit agencies would try very hard to rein in costs (that applies to city government as well–such as the latest settlement between San Francisco and its employees). Their biggest expenditure is paying pensions. Everyone wants minimum stress at work, a good wage, decent benefits, and fully funded retirement–not just public sector employees. I’m grateful that the tax measures passed and raises granted but hope the public sector will reciprocate. Is my post still followed by “vote?”
If lines on MUNI were cut and BART ceasing night service, I would not be able to get to the East Bay or even medical appointment in the City. I do not drive. There are thousands of us non-drivers in the Bay Area. We would suffer greatly if service were cut. Last night I attended a lecture at UC Berkeley. I took BART. Came home in the evening. I wouldn’t have been able to get home if night service was cut.
Congratulations raising sales tax 10.75% to 11.25% to bail out the biggest, bloated transit agency BART. Raising sales tax on purchases will simply cause people to reduce purchasing power. For every $100 purchased, an additional $0.50 will be needed by the consumer. Fifty cents may not seem a lot now but added up it will become expensive. When BART raises fares, what will you the rider say?
“What will you the rider say?”
That Bill E Pardue is a curmudgeon.
And what would we non-drivers do to get around if lines were cut or BART stations closed in the evenings? It would be equivalent to a curfew on non-drivers. We wouldn’t be able to attend concerts or lectures in the East Bay that occurred in the evenings. Not supporting public transit is unrealistic and stupid.
Oh, you don’t say, we got the best gift actually: San Francisco sales tax rises a full percent, not a half like the other counties. For a full 14 years. That’s unless somebody manages to sue this out of existence.
1% on SF sales tax will drive shoppers to adjacent counties with a lower sales tax. And I cannot see another tax measure based on sales tax winning here. The sales tax in SF and Oakland are close to 11% now.