Campaign to Save Muni Pauses Temporarily After Petition Issue

A campaign to avert drastic service cuts at San Francisco’s Muni this week temporarily paused signature gathering after the campaign’s legal team identified a potential issue with its filings.

“ As soon as our legal team flagged a technical, non-policy related oversight in the filing, we moved to refile,” said Max Szabo, a spokesperson for the Stronger Muni For All campaign — which launched signature gathering last week.

The initiative is pushing for a parcel tax measure on San Francisco’s November ballot, in order to avoid deep service cuts at Muni, the city’s public transit provider.

The campaign said it amended its filing with the city’s Department of Elections “out of an abundance of caution,” to include the full text of two sections of existing law that would be changed if the measure passes — information that was not included in the original filing.

“[San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie] and the measure’s proponents believe there is no acceptable risk when it comes to saving Muni,” Szabo said.

The Department of Elections confirmed that campaign proponents refiled documents on Wednesday morning.

Campaign staff told signature gatherers on Monday morning to pause their work until they could redistribute updated petitions, and told the canvassers to return already signed petitions to the campaign.

The refiling will not impact the campaign, staff said, and signature gathering will restart “imminently.”

“ We’re all set to qualify and win this thing in November,” Szabo said.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs Muni, is forecasting budget deficits of more than $300 million beginning next fiscal year. Without additional funding, it could be forced to eliminate 20 bus routes, end cable car service or terminate regular operations at 9 p.m. The agency continues to struggle to recover from pandemic-related drops in revenue.

About $150 million of the revenue generated from the parcel tax would be used to reduce Muni’s deficit, and about $10 million would pay for “marginal service quality improvements,” according to the SFMTA. The measure would expire in 15 years, and the tax amount would be annually adjusted for inflation.

A separate transit funding campaign, The Connect Bay Area Act, is currently gathering signatures to place a regional sales tax measure on the November ballot in five Bay Area counties, which would also bring more than $100million to Muni’s coffers annually, as well as other struggling transit agencies.

The Stronger Muni For All campaign encouraged signature gatherers to redirect their energy to the Connect Bay Area campaign while it worked to fix the issue. Paid and volunteer signature gatherers must collect just over 10,600 valid signatures by July 6 to get the parcel tax measure on the November ballot.