Opposition Group Says Bay Area Transit Doesn't Deserve More Money This November

The opposition committee pointed to the over $6 billion in taxes, tolls and government grants that they said major Bay Area transit agencies received in fiscal year 2024-25 and said the agencies should instead reallocate existing funding rather than asking taxpayers for more. By pausing funding for major capital projects, including BART Silicon Valley Phase II, California High Speed Rail and Caltrain’s downtown San Francisco expansion, the committee said transit agencies could fully fund operations in the near term and put a slimmed-down tax proposal to fund transit in front of voters in the 2028 election.

“ Let’s stop spending huge amounts of money on planning and constructing very stupid mega projects without a purpose and use that money for other purposes, such as operating what we have now,” Rubin said.

Proponents of the sales tax measure, known as the Connect Bay Area Act, have pushed back and questioned the feasibility of the committee’s plan. Jeff Cretan, spokesperson for the campaign, said the committee’s arguments were “not grounded in reality.” Most of the money for those capital projects is from either federal or state sources that “simply can’t be used for operating costs,” he said.

“It’s nice to pretend transit funding works like that, but it doesn’t,” Cretan said.

Ethan Elkind, the director of the climate program at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, who is not involved in the campaign, called the committee’s proposal “incredibly misleading.”

“ In some cases, there are matching funds provided from the state and local level for these federal dollars, but it’s not clear where the matching funds are coming from, and in many cases, those have restrictions as well,” Elkind said.

If approved by voters, the Connect Bay Area Act would generate around $1 billion annually for 14 years to support BART, AC Transit, Muni and Caltrain, along with other agencies. It would impose a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and a one-cent sales tax in San Francisco.

Those agencies are facing critical budget deficits due to pandemic-related drops in revenue and ridership, and all have warned of immense cuts to service unless the Connect Bay Area Act passes.

“It’s not a false alarm. If we do not hit a sustainable funding source by this election, stations will close, lines will shut down, and the Bay Area will become less affordable for workers, families, and seniors,” Cretan said.

But Rubin and supporters of the Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit also said the agencies should look inward to their own expenses, and suggested they could save money by reducing overtime pay, evaluating contracts with labor unions and automating BART.

The committee’s website lists the highest-paid transit employees in 2024, namely, a BART Senior Police Officer who took home more than $661,000 in total pay and benefits, including over $272,500 in overtime pay.

“ These are just people who know how to use the system and get an incredible amount of overtime and other special pay,” Rubin said.

While there are real negative examples of what some might consider to be excessively paid employees at transit agencies, Elkind said, “We’re talking about pennies compared to the scale of the need here.”

BART’s budget deficit for fiscal year 2027 is $376 million.

“ You’re not going to fully fund BART by making sure a police officer is docked a few hundred thousand dollars in pay,” he said.

Rubin said the committee is currently self-funded by its own members. He acknowledged that they are heavily outspent by the Connect Bay Area campaign, whose top funders include the company Salesforce and tech CEO Chris Larsen. The Connect Bay Area campaign is also endorsed by a broad coalition of local labor unions, business groups and elected officials.