Overview
- The Connect Bay Area campaign, which submitted roughly 305,000 signatures Tuesday, turned petitions in to elections offices in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco for county verification.
- County elections departments will check the petitions over the next few weeks and the campaign expects the verification process to take up to about a month before the measure officially qualifies for the November ballot.
- The proposed sales tax, authorized by 2025’s SB 63, would last 14 years with a 0.5% rate in four counties and 1% in San Francisco and is projected to raise about $1 billion a year for BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, VTA and other operators if voters approve.
- The Metropolitan Transportation Commission unanimously approved the first phase of an independent Financial Efficiency Review that found more than $1 billion in cost savings at four major agencies since 2019 and requires some recommended changes to be adopted by July 1, 2026.
- Campaign leaders raised roughly $5.5 million and combined paid gatherers with more than 1,000 volunteers who supplied about 77,000 signatures, and if the tax passes the second, deeper fiscal review will begin and agencies would avoid the service cuts they warn would otherwise be needed.