San Francisco Bay area: local revenue measure: public transit funding.

Senators Wiener and Arreguín, with a coauthor slate including Assembly colleagues, advance a regional financing framework that creates a Public Transit Revenue Measure District spanning Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and the City and County of San Francisco to fund Bay Area transit. The measure would authorize a districtwide retail transactions and use tax for a 14-year period, with a rate of one-half of 1 percent in all counties except the City and County of San Francisco, where the rate would be 1 percent, contingent on voter approval at a November 2026 statewide election. The district would be a separate legal entity governed by the same board that runs the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and its formation would not be subject to the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg framework. Election administration would fall to county elections officials, with defined procedures for multi-county ballot handling and translation costs.

If approved, revenues would be allocated after administrative costs to the commission and to a set of transit operators and related agencies for operations expenses, with explicit distributions to major systems and local operators. The plan directs funds to ongoing administration and to specific operators for transit operations, plus direct allocations to agencies such as the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, Caltrain, BART, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and others identified as participating entities. Additional local allocations would flow to the San Mateo County Transit District and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, among others. The framework also contemplates dedicated streams for Bay Ferry, Golden Gate Transit, fare programs and accessibility initiatives, as well as funding for regional mapping, wayfinding, and transit-priority projects, subject to approved governance and program rules.

To ensure accountability and financial discipline, the bill mandates a two-phase financial efficiency review conducted by a third-party consultant under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s oversight. Phase one would identify cost-saving actions already implemented since 2020 and analyze early-action strategies, including a property assets review with a focus on redevelopment opportunities near transit. Phase two would identify a broader menu of cost-saving measures and a regional development and financing strategy, evaluating impacts on ridership, revenue, and broader public benefits. An oversight committee, including operator representatives and independent experts, would review analyses and approve implementation plans; operators would be required to adopt phase-one commitments and to file implementation plans for phase two, subject to oversight. The bill also imposes a maintenance-of-effort requirement on funded operators and creates an ad hoc adjudication process to address operator performance, with potential funding withholdings up to a total of 7 percent and conditions for reinvestment or release of withheld funds.

The legislation situates the district within a broader policy context that emphasizes regional coordination, transparency, and project-backed funding of transit with a view toward improving service reliability, accessibility, and financial sustainability. It requires a March 31, 2026 report forecasting ridership impacts from planned rail and other projects, and it provides for independent oversight, annual status updates, and sunset or renewal considerations tied to the tax measure. The measure contemplates severability, reimbursements for mandated costs if applicable, and a structured relationship with existing regional and local transportation agencies, aiming to align near-term financing with long-range regional transportation goals and proximity-driven development around transit.