After struggling to build consensus around a regional transportation tax measure, Bay Area policymakers are leaning on polling again for help.
The key questions center around which tax framework — designed to save pandemic-strained bus and rail agencies from financial collapse — would garner the most voter support. One option is a 10-year half-cent sales tax to fund transit only, and the other is a sales tax plus a parcel tax lasting 30 years to support transit and infrastructure improvements.
Another unknown is which counties would be included. As discussed so far, Marin and its North Bay neighbors would either be left out of the mix or provided the opportunity to opt in.
“We are supportive of a measure to go forward,” Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said at its special meeting on Monday. “I have always supported a 10-year measure, just trying to get closer to the problem at hand, but I’m sympathetic to other organizations that may need capital projects to get the votes they need to pass.”
The primary thrust of the measure is to shore up Bay Area Rapid Transit, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Caltrain, which face a financial cliff stemming from telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Marin County, a few sales tax measures already support transit and infrastructure. About 55% of a half-cent sales tax providing about $27 million in annual revenue is used for Marin Transit bus operations, with the rest supporting other transportation efforts. The tax expires in 2049.