State and local officials have agreed on a $590 million bridge loan to prop up Bay Area transit agencies until voters decide on a sales tax increase to bolster the systems.
The loan will stave off service cuts at AC Transit, BART, Caltrain and San Francisco Muni pending revenue from a proposed five-county tax hike, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said Friday.
Without the bridge loan, the systems that carry hundreds of thousands of daily transit riders faced a deficit of more than $800 million in the next fiscal year, the commission said in a press release.
Much depends on a regional funding measure authorized by the Legislature that may appear on the November ballot in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
If it qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, the tax measure would allow increases of 0.5% to 1% to be collected in nine Bay Area counties to generate roughly $1 billion per year for transit service.
“This agreement between my administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission provides essential short-term financing to support Bay Area transit operations while the region works together on long-term funding solutions,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
The money from the loan will become available July 1. If the sales tax wins voter support,
those funds would not begin flowing until the following year, the commission said.
San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, who co-wrote the bill authorizing the transit tax measure, said the loan headed off a potential “death spiral” for transit agencies.
“Public transportation is part of the Bay Area’s lifeblood,” he said in a statement. “So many Bay Area residents rely on transit to get to work, school, or family, and service cuts would also explode traffic congestion. We must not let this happen, and we won’t let it happen.”
The loan agreement uses money awarded but not yet allocated for Bay Area projects by the California Transportation Commission through the state Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program, according to the MTC.
It calls for repayment over 12 years, with interest-only payments during the first two years.
Payments are secured by the “revenue-based” portion of State Transit Assistance that goes directly to the transit agencies, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said.
Interest rates are variable so the state is repaid at the same rate it would have earned had the funds remained in state accounts, the commission said.
A simple college level “Introduction To Finance” class could have avoided all this.
Why do we keep the same people that are in charge that created the problem in the first place…
An what’s the total that’s been wasted on the choo choo to nowhere ? ?
https://patriotpost.us/memes/115132-nearly-done-2025-03-06
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They fantasize and are NEVER held accountable and
we get stuck paying for it.
OG you are killing me with the “choo choo to nowhere” I haven’t heard choo choo for awhile! 🤣😂
I liked that too. Made me think of Mongo.
For ever it’s worth, I’m voting No on the sales tax increase. But I’m sure they will find enough of votes somewhere to pass it.
Between rest homes, homeless encampments, drunk tanks, and dead voters they can pass anything.
Publicly funded transit system that operates as a Private Corporation – needs to raise their own money. Sorry. Fire the Majority of the Board and replace with people more interested in a Transit agency instead of political agendas.
This is just throwing good money after bad.
I’d bet that the loan will never be repaid.
The new tax to support transit will pass no matter how voters vote.
The government wants us all to buy cars, then take the bus.
That’s nuts.
But then again, so are the politicians.
… that we will be paying for … did we have a say in it? noooooooo if we did would we approve it? nooooooo
I support the sale tax increase and loan. We need to pay for public transportation to keep the economy going. Right now, we subsidize (as much as 50% off) low income riders and people with disabilities. But when the increase in sale tax pass, they public transport agencies get theirs money back and maybe more.
Do you understand economics at all?
“We need to pay for public transportation to keep the economy going.” How is that?
“Right now, we subsidize (as much as 50% off) low income riders and people with disabilities.”
With what? Taxes would be the only way.
“But when the increase in sale tax pass, they public transport agencies get theirs money back and maybe more.” How is that? This is subsidizing them with more taxes.
If people don’t use it let it fail.
Just write a personal check payable to BART. Show how much you support the tax increase instead of virtue signalling.
Putz.
I will do them better by make sure that the sale tax increase (which we will be all contributing) so they can get more revenue than just me writing them a check.
Why not do both, Mr. Virtue Signal? Surely you can afford to give more for such an important project. BART will cash your check and thank their lucky stars that such a committed supporter like you exists. Or don’t you really want to help the low income riders and people with disabilities?
You make comments like this all the time on this board, just an aggitator to rile people up. Who cares what you support or what your opinion is on the subject matter! Let’s be straight here I don’t for one second fool myself and think anyone here cares what I think or say…
While a majority of Contra Costa County voters normally vote “NO” on these types of multi-county measures, we get stuck paying for them because Alameda County and San Francisco County voters overwhelmingly vote “YES” for these measures. This BART measure will also include San Mateo County and Santa Clara County.
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It’s time to raise BART ticket prices so that it finally becomes a rider-ticket based funded operation.
This is just an example of why budgeting
should be a mandatory class in high school
But how can all these troubles be? We’re in Gavin Newsom’s 5th richest “country-state” in the world! California supposedly is an econonic powerhouse right up there with Japan & Germany!
Look at the ridership on the buses around Concord. I never see more than 2 or 3 people riding it. What a waste of $
Exactly yet we read bogus claims of ridership up and crime down. BART needs to be privatized and ran for profit. Get the criminals and homeless off and put back security on each line to keep the trash off the trains. It is pretty simple but they try to tug on heart strings to further their blatant fraud!
Maybe you should go during peak hours, like work and school hours, and you will see that how pack the bus can be. It is so packed that the county connection has more buses during those hours.
For example, every morning, along Clayton road, route 10 is packed with people heading to concord Bart to work in sf and elsewhere. And it is so packed with cvhs students that the agency creates route 612, in addition to route 10, along Clayton road to bus the students around. Route 14 and 16 are always packed because they are free for people leaving around the monument corridor so they can go to work in that area and go the the county hospital in Martinez.
Kill those and something will sprout up to take their place.
What makes you think that I don’t? What makes you think I haven’t spent 57 years of my life here commuting on Bart? I have just as keen insight as you and No they aren’t packed not even remotely close to it with CV students, Monument corridor commuters or people heading to Kaiser, how would you even know where anyone is headed in their morning commute!?! Chris is 100% spot on Paul!
I take those routes and keep data out of boredom; that is how I know.
here are some of my log:
at around 5 am, there is are the same 5 people take route 10 to concord Bart and head to sf to work.
around 10 am, if you take route 10 (from Bart to Clayton) ; you will see a group of 6 disabled with theirs caregivers. These folk get off at the stop near the concord library.
for route 14 and 16, people get off and on but there are least 5 people on board at a given stop; The stop where most people get on off and on for route 16 is C street and Alhambra ave in Martinez because it is right in front of the hospital.
This doesn’t mean squat! Your log! That’s funny…
Then you can request the data from the county connection under FOIA. All the bus drivers have to tally how many people get on at each stop. The agency use such data to adjust the routes. Tell me you know nothing about public transportation without telling.
Just privatize it already. We would all get better service, safer travels, and less tax dollars flushed down the drain. It would be more expensive for the users because of no subsidies, but far less expensive for the taxpayer.
BART has been a political slush fund for the left and the unions. Run it like a company that actually cares about making it profitable.
Fine! Privatize it and we’ll see that how long before the government set price for the fare (you know like rent control); and if the company who take over the public transport fail because there isn’t customers (mostly low income and disabled) due to high fare, they better not ask for a bailout.
Did you ever learn the first law of holes? It’s not a question of transit losing money, it’s a question of how much! We need to cut our losses! Those losses are our tax dollars.
So what if they loose money. If the government doesn’t run a deficit, it has no excuse to rise money. Our government at every level run deficit most of the time and they are still here; so I am betting on Bart will be here for a long time.
I’m perfectly ok with it failing, but it won’t.
The first thing that would happen in a privatization is that expenses would be slashed. Salary, overtime, benefits, redundant employees, big SF buildings, etc. would all be jettisoned. The savings would be immense. These savings would actually reduce prices by passing on the savings that are normally swallowed up by the bureaucracy.
The govt specializes in spending money, not saving or making money. Try to imagine a world where the government isn’t needed and the costs go down. It’s easy if you try.
And if it fails, then that’s ok too. Just proves how economically unfeasible BART is.
ideally, you can reduce spending when taken over an entity. But in case of Bart, they (the workers) are unionized, so good luck with firing people and/or pay them less.
If you dissolve Bart and union and start from scratch, you still need to hire these workers again due to their experience . And since they are addicted to the union benefits, they will unionize again and business will go under. Nobody with any business experience would take the risk. Unless they start with a billion and end up a million.
You actually said it “If you dissolve Bart and union and start from scratch, you still need to hire these workers again due to their experience . And since they are addicted to the union benefits, they will unionize again and business will go under.” The Unions are the problem! They don’t care about anything but increasing the pay and benefits of their members! This applies to all of the Public Employee Unions!
One of the Biggest Jokes in the Bay Area with ZERO Oversight on Bart just do what you want, go online and look at there salaries. When you have a janitor who while working overtime was paid 270K Houston we have a Problem!!!!!
Exactly I know painters, electricians and many others who love that Bart gravy train! Call in sick during the week get full pay and grab that OT on the weekend! Super profitable and only have to put in minimal hours to earn more than you are entitled to! But hey Bart now says ridership is up, crime is down but give us your money even if you aren’t riding!!!
Paul wishes he was a BART janitor.
Lot’s do!
Yeah. Who would be stupid enough to turn down an easy job with high paid and strong Union protection? Not me
https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/Salary%20Schedule%20-%202022.0101.pdf
man, we really need to pass the sale tax to support all the worker cushion salary.
https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2025/news20250410-0
when the sale tax pass, I hope the bathroom and elevator attendant positions (which mostly staff by minority) will be extended indefinitely. It is easier job than the janitor position. I see all the staffs in sf stations sit on a chair and doing nothing. Egos they have clean hand and clean money. How do I get in on that?
Vote No on this, starve the beast until they undergo serious reform. If you keep writing blank checks, the problem will continue to get worse, there’s no incentive to address the core issues.
Sounds good to me let them starve!
Repayment over 12 years? Sure. Repayment by increasing taxes and or another loan.
Its just another example of what the democrat government does best: Mismanagement, squandering tax payer dollars, never ending tax increases, and overall failure and fecklessness.