26 Jan Bay Area’s Transportation Agency Planning to Put Revenue Measure on Future Ballot

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. (Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Commission via Bay City News)

By Bay City News

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s regional transportation financing and planning agency, is looking to put a measure on a future ballot that could generate at least $1 billion per year.

The money would be raised by the MTC using one or more different options, including a sales tax, income tax or payroll tax, among other possibilities.

“Voters traditionally have supported transportation through bridge tolls or sales taxes,” said MTC chair and Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza. “Bridge tolls are not an option in this case and we think it’s smart to look at more than a regional sales tax. We’re proposing a few options so we have enough flexibility and enough time to get it right.”

The funds could be spent on things like road repair and safety projects and improving public transit systems.

The measure would have to win voter approval and could be on a ballot as early as 2026, MTC officials said in a news release Wednesday.

In order for the MTC to put such a measure on a ballot in all nine Bay Area counties, they also need state lawmakers to pass enabling legislation, which state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has already introduced.

Wiener’s Senate Bill 925 can be amended with details about how such a measure would work as early as mid-February.

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