Taxpayer advocates, transit reformers, and civic leaders from across the Bay Area today announced the formation of the Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit, a campaign committee opposing the regional transit sales tax measure headed for the November 2026 ballot in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. The committee, sponsored by the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association, includes representatives from all five affected counties.
About SB 63
The measure, authorized by SB 63 (Wiener, 2025), would raise the sales tax by half a cent in four counties and a full cent in San Francisco for fourteen years. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission projects the tax would collect about $1 billion per year, or more than $14 billion over its term, on top of the roughly $6.2 billion in tax, toll, and grant subsidies that Bay Area transit operators already receive annually.
“Bay Area families already pay some of the highest sales taxes in California, and this measure would push total sales taxes in nine Bay Area cities up to or over 11 percent,” said Marc Joffe, President of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association and a member of the new committee. “Sales taxes fall hardest on working families, renters, and anyone living paycheck to paycheck. Before asking voters to lock in another billion dollars a year for fourteen years, the transit agencies should explain why BART’s operating subsidy has risen 257 percent since 2019 while service was cut, and why 51 BART employees collected more than $400,000 apiece in pay and benefits in 2024.”
Initiative Strategy
The committee notes that the tax’s sponsors chose a citizens’ initiative route, gathering signatures across five counties, so the measure can pass with a simple majority rather than the two-thirds vote that would be required if the district placed a tax measure on the ballot.
“This measure locks taxpayers into today’s cost structure for fourteen years at the very moment that driverless vehicles and the permanent shift to remote work are transforming how the Bay Area moves – at no cost to taxpayers,” said Gregg Dieguez of SHIFT-Bay Area, also a committee member representing San Mateo County. “SB 63 contains language about oversight, but there are crippling flaws which gut its effectiveness. The agencies can continue business as usual while collecting our money. Voters deserve real reform, consolidated administration, and meaningful cost control before they are asked for another dime.”
Alternative Solutions
The committee emphasizes that voting no does not shut down transit. Instead, it argues that the state should redirect a portion of the roughly $1 billion per year in cap-and-invest funds now flowing to high-speed rail, and that pausing the region’s two largest capital megaprojects, BART’s Silicon Valley Phase II extension and Caltrain’s Portal downtown extension, would free billions of state and local dollars for operations while planners design a leaner and fuller reform measure for 2028.
Individual Impact Information
Residents of all five counties can look up the effect of the tax on their own city’s sales tax rate and household budget using the calculator on the committee’s website at: transitaccountability.com.
The Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit is a campaign committee sponsored by the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association, a nonprofit civic organization founded in 1937 and based in Martinez, California. The committee includes representatives from Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. Contributions are not tax deductible. The Committee expects to change its name to include the alphanumeric designation of the so-called “Connect Bay Area Transit” measure once that has been assigned by election officials.