Think of a cook who closes a kitchen in downtown Oakland at 10 p.m., or a caregiver riding BART home from a late shift in San Mateo County. Under the backup plan BART's board adopted in February, trains would have stopped at 9 p.m. every night from January if the region's transit tax failed. On November 3, voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties approved it.
Measure RTM had about 62.2 percent yes, 805,292 votes to 488,480, in KQED's tally of unofficial returns as of November 6. The results become official when each of the five counties certifies its count.
"This is a huge win for public transit," Jeff Cretan, spokesman for the Connect Bay Area coalition that campaigned for the tax, said on election night, KQED reported.
What voters approved
The ballot question set the terms:
- The rate: a sales tax of 0.5 percent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and 1 percent in San Francisco.
- How long: 14 years.
- How much: about $980 million a year.
- When: collection begins in April 2027, and the first money is expected to reach transit agencies in July 2027, according to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
- The bar: a simple majority. The measure reached the ballot as a citizen initiative: organizers collected 305,895 signatures against a threshold of 186,000, Bay City News reported on May 26. A regional tax placed on the ballot by the Legislature would have needed two-thirds.
Who wrote the law behind it
The tax rests on SB 63, by State Senators Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Jesse Arreguín of Berkeley. Its coauthors were Senator Laura Richardson and Assemblymembers Mia Bonta, Matt Haney and Catherine Stefani. The Assembly passed it 46 to 20 on September 12, 2025, and the Senate agreed to the final version 29 to 8 the next day. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it on October 13, 2025, as Chapter 740 of the Statutes of 2025.
The law created the Public Transit Revenue Measure District across the five counties, run by the same board as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). It let the tax go to voters on November 3, 2026, either placed by that board or by a voter initiative.
It also came with conditions. SB 63 requires MTC to hire and manage an outside consultant to review the finances of AC Transit, Caltrain, BART and Muni in two phases. The second phase was required only if voters approved the tax, so it now goes ahead. An oversight committee created by the law reviews and adopts each phase, and the agencies have to act on the findings.
Where the money goes
After administrative costs, the law sends shares of the tax to MTC, for regional programs and for the day-to-day operations of AC Transit, Caltrain, BART, Muni and other operators. It sends other shares straight to local agencies, including SamTrans and VTA. Muni's share is about $155 million a year, according to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
What it costs at the register
On a $100 taxable purchase, the new tax adds 50 cents in the four counties and $1 in San Francisco. A SPUR report estimated that taxpayers would spend $82 a year on a half-cent sales tax, KQED reported. Food bought to prepare at home is generally exempt from California sales tax; hot prepared food and restaurant meals are taxed. Sales taxes apply to retail sales of goods, so housing rent is not taxed.
The cuts it was meant to stop
In February, BART's board adopted a backup plan for a projected $367 million deficit, Bay City News reported. Starting in January 2027, trains would have run every 30 minutes on three lines and stopped at 9 p.m. daily, a 63 percent cut in service hours, with fares and parking fees up 30 percent. A second phase from July 2027 could have closed up to 15 stations and raised fares by a cumulative 50 percent.
"At the end of the day, if this measure isn't successful, you know, stations are getting closed. There's no two ways about that," BART General Manager Robert Powers said, as Bay City News reported.
Other agencies had their own lists. Caltrain warned it could close one-third of its stations and end weekend service, and AC Transit planned to cut service 16 percent and lay off up to 300 employees, KQED reported.
Drivers had a stake too. An analysis for SPUR, one of the measure's sponsors, by the engineering firm Jacobs found that delays at some of the region's worst freeway bottlenecks would more than double if transit agencies cut service. Average rush-hour delays at the Bay Bridge would rise from about 30 minutes to 63 in the morning and 73 in the afternoon.
The tax follows a stopgap. In February 2026, Governor Newsom signed AB 117, which directs the state to lend MTC up to $590 million so it can make operating loans to BART, Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit, to bridge the gap until a regional tax could take effect.
Who rides
Latino riders make up 28 percent of the region's transit riders, and two in three riders (66 percent) had no household vehicle available for the trip they were on, according to MTC's 2023-2024 survey of more than 16,500 riders across 23 Bay Area transit systems. Latino residents were 25.0 percent of the nine-county population in 2024, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
What happens next
- The count: the five counties finish counting and certify their results.
- April 2027: collection begins. Money is expected to reach the agencies in July 2027.
- The efficiency review: the consultant's second phase goes ahead, and the oversight committee reviews it.
- Muni: San Francisco voters also weighed Proposition H, a separate parcel tax for Muni alone, which had 73.6 percent yes in unofficial returns as of November 5, KQED's results show.
What business owners can do
- Retailers in the five counties: set the new district rate in your point-of-sale and invoicing systems before collection begins in April 2027, and watch for the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration's notice of the new rates.
- Employers whose workers ride transit: follow the financial efficiency review SB 63 requires, and the oversight committee that adopts its findings. BART, Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit must adopt plans to carry out its cost-saving findings, and show they complied, before they receive the money.
