Bay Area voters will see a half‑cent regressive sales tax on the November 2026 ballot. It is for BART and other assorted Bay Area transit agencies. But this isn’t as simple as “funding BART.” Everyone loves transportation, but BART faces many problems, including an unsustainable cost structure. Even if this tax increase passes, the proceeds primarily cover ongoing operating deficits and debt repayment. They do not fund substantial improvements that could permanently enhance rider safety, the rider experience, train noise, or station cleanliness, which could increase ridership. The ballot language literally commits to no specific tangible improvement for BART.
As taxpayers including the poorest, we’re being asked to pour money into a bathtub with the drain wide open.
How did we get here?
Many reasons. But most fundamentally, when BART ridership (currently less than 50% of pre-pandemic levels) cratered after the pandemic, operational costs rose 43% from fiscal year 2021 to 2024. In 2024, BART paid over 100 employees $285,000 or more.
Taxpayers must insist on improvements first: reform labor agreements; expand part-time operators; implement fully autonomous BART trains; contract out more transit service; cut administrative costs; and halt expensive planning of unnecessary projects like Link 21 and Valley Link. Vote NO.
Thanks for your letter, C.J., highlighting the fact that most, if not all, of our taxpayer money will go towards paying operating deficits caused by ever-increasing union salaries, pensions, and benefits. Until BART or other public transportation begins to do any sort of fiscal management, vote NO. If you’re unwilling to transfer your money to pay for 100% capacity labor operations with less than 50% ridership, vote NO.
Giving more money to the government is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The correct answer, as has been proposed is to close certain stations, cut the schedule, run few trains, which will result in laying off workers and then raising the fares. Bart should be run like a business, not a fun failed experiment.
While I support these comments, they don't go far enough. In the face of a Fiscal Cliff and declining ridership since 2019 BART decided to build a new police station and BORROWED to fund 1,129 new rail cars when it needs about 750 to run the system and cover mechanical outages. Further, this type of transit is exorbitantly expensive compared to emerging agile alternatives like express bus lanes (which Seoul SK did), vanpools and EV/AV's. The entire Transit Industrial Complex (TIC) is a parasite on the region and is blocking necessary evolution of a distributed system where we no longer need to funnel "everyone from everywhere all at once to the same place". See for example the ridiculous Plan Bay Area 2050+ which prioritizes the TIC above major city and county priorities like schools, healthcare, wildfire, flooding, etc. etc.: https://shiftbayarea.substack.com/p/a-plan-to-fail-plan-bay-area-2050
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(3) comments
Thanks for your letter, C.J., highlighting the fact that most, if not all, of our taxpayer money will go towards paying operating deficits caused by ever-increasing union salaries, pensions, and benefits. Until BART or other public transportation begins to do any sort of fiscal management, vote NO. If you’re unwilling to transfer your money to pay for 100% capacity labor operations with less than 50% ridership, vote NO.
Giving more money to the government is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The correct answer, as has been proposed is to close certain stations, cut the schedule, run few trains, which will result in laying off workers and then raising the fares. Bart should be run like a business, not a fun failed experiment.
While I support these comments, they don't go far enough. In the face of a Fiscal Cliff and declining ridership since 2019 BART decided to build a new police station and BORROWED to fund 1,129 new rail cars when it needs about 750 to run the system and cover mechanical outages. Further, this type of transit is exorbitantly expensive compared to emerging agile alternatives like express bus lanes (which Seoul SK did), vanpools and EV/AV's. The entire Transit Industrial Complex (TIC) is a parasite on the region and is blocking necessary evolution of a distributed system where we no longer need to funnel "everyone from everywhere all at once to the same place". See for example the ridiculous Plan Bay Area 2050+ which prioritizes the TIC above major city and county priorities like schools, healthcare, wildfire, flooding, etc. etc.: https://shiftbayarea.substack.com/p/a-plan-to-fail-plan-bay-area-2050
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.