Mass transit sales tax gets enough signatures to make November ballot

Organizers collected 305,895 signatures across five Bay Area counties, surpassing the 186,000 required to qualify a regional transit sales tax measure for the November ballot. Voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara will vote on Senate Bill 63, the Connect Bay Area Act, which would create new funding for public transit agencies facing budget deficits. In most counties, a “yes” vote increases the sales tax by half a cent on the dollar, while San Francisco would see a full cent increase. The effort was funded mainly by Salesforce, Genentech, Meta, Herzog Contracting Corp., Uber, and the Sobrato Organization. Signature collection was used to avoid the two-thirds approval requirement that typically applies when the Legislature places a regional sales tax measure on the ballot.

"Organizers with the Connect Bay Area Act, a regional sales tax measure for public transit, collected 305,895 signatures across five Bay Area counties, well above the 186,000 required threshold to place it on this year's ballot. Voters in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara will vote this November on the sales tax measure Senate Bill 63 - more commonly known as the Connect Bay Area Act - that would create a new source of funding for several public transit agencies facing budget deficits."

"In Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, a "yes" vote means the sales tax will go up by a half cent on the dollar. In San Francisco, where voters are more pro-tax, passage will result in a full cent increase. The Connect Bay Area effort was funded mainly by Salesforce, Genentech, Meta, Herzog Contracting Corp., Uber, and the Sobrato Organization."

"By funding a sales tax, which everyone would pay, it would reduce the odds tech companies would be taxed to pay for the cost of taking their workers to their jobs. Contractors such as Herzog and Sobrato would benefit from construction contracts paid with money from the new tax. The state legislature passed SB 63 in 2025 after being introduced by state senators Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley. It authorized placing a regional sales tax measure on the November ballot."

"In California, a voter-approved regional measure for a new sales tax would normally require a two-thirds majority approval if the Legislature directly places it on a ballot. Transit advocates, however, chose to collect signatures to make the sales tax a citizen-initiated ballot measure that would lower the threshold to a simple majority of votes cast. Organizers with Connect Bay Area, the campaign to pass the measure, said the number of signatures collected "proves there is broad and deep support across the region for public transit.""

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