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Proponents of the November ballot measure supporting public transit published updated polling numbers today, showing a majority of Bay Area voters support the half-cent sales tax.
The Connect Bay Area citizen-led initiative’s latest polling numbers show 54% of voters support the measure, according to a press release from proponents released on July 29. The initiative cleared a major hurdle earlier this month after proponents gathered enough signatures to certify for the November ballot. As a citizen initiative, the measure would need a simple majority to pass.
The measure would devote a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and a one cent sales tax in San Francisco to Bay Area transit authorities. The taxes would last 14 years. It would generate about $980 million annually, which would be divided among local transit agencies to stave off service cuts and improve existing infrastructure.
Caltrain and BART are in especially dire financial straits. Much of their revenue comes from ridership, which has not yet reached pre-COVID-19 levels. Caltrain officials have warned that without another revenue source, they will need to reduce train frequency to every hour, end weekend service and stop running trains by 9 p.m. on weekdays.
Adina Levin, executive director of the transit advocacy nonprofit Seamless Bay Area, said Caltrain’s ridership has been rebounding ever since the corridor switched to electric trains. Without the measure, she worries Caltrain’s progress would make a “screeching reverse.”
Seamless Bay Area is part of the coalition supporting the Connect Bay Area initiative, so Levin helped gather signatures in person at Palo Alto farmers markets and at Caltrain stations around the area — efforts that she said were “pretty gratifying.”
“We would go out on … the trains that carried people to Giants’ games, and said ‘You know, the train that’s going to take you home after the Giants’ game and the one that’s going to take you there on the weekend is going to get cut,’” Levin said. “When you let people know what was going on, many, many, many people wanted to keep the transit system running and improving, and signed.”
Some revenue from the measure will go directly to VTA and SamTrans, as part of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties’ opt-in deals. SamTrans is expecting about $50 million annually, which would go toward improving accessibility, and the quality and safety of existing transport corridors, such as turning the Dumbarton railroad corridor into a new bus route.
While the early polling numbers and feedback from transit users are encouraging to tax proponents, Levin told the Weekly there’s still work to be done outreaching to voters about the November measure.
“A result in the mid 50 (percent range) means we can’t go to sleep, but if we’re out getting the message out, then that is a very winnable campaign,” she said.
