State Sens. Scott Wiener and Aisha Wahab co-authored a bill last year to allow for a ballot measure that would’ve raised taxes to fund transit agencies in nine Bay Area counties, but internal squabbling sank it. Little has changed since then. But the fiscal cliff is getting close enough to peer off the edge.
“Considering the parties, I would imagine we see the lowest-common-denominator solution,” said Tom Radulovich, senior policy fellow at urban planning nonprofit Liveable City. “At some point, nobody wants to watch the puppy drown.”
The greatest amount of political support, according to sources at the MTC meetings, is for a middle-ground taxation path that would raise around $560 million annually, mainly from San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties.
But there’s not a clear consensus on some basic policy points, such as how long the tax would be in effect; whether it would be a sales tax, parcel tax, or some combination; and how much each county would be expected to cough up. Potential scenarios can be viewed here.
Complexity adds legal risk, which could mean money being held up by the courts, as well as a more pedestrian challenge: There’s concern that summaries of all the carveouts wouldn’t fit on the ballot page.