☆ Huge & deceptive transit bailout tax planned for next fall
If you thought it was over with the bait-n-switch Measure A, think again. November, 2026 will see SB63 on the ballot--a deceptive measure which aims to hide the bailout of the region's bankrupt and unsustainable mass transit systems under the guise of "road repairs." An Opp Now exclusive collated by our editorial team.
The regional sales tax increase on the Nov. 2026 ballot will be “sold” to voters, especially in Santa Clara County, as a “repair roads/potholes” ballot measure. Transit will be a “secondary” (or non-existent) issue in the sales pitch to voters in Santa Clara County.
More than 84% of the 0.5% sales tax in Santa Clara County could be spent on “roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed-route transit.” That likely means that 100% of the paved surface of any road that a VTA bus has a fixed route is eligible for RM5 funds (even 100% of the pavement on expressways and major arterials on which buses use just 2 of the 4 or 6 lanes) .
An open question is whether VTA’s limited service “fixed routes”, such the “school tripper” buses, would make those roads eligible for “roadway repavement projects.” VTA would have the perverse incentive to alter its “fixed routes” to become more circuitous in order to excuse repavement projects for more roads with “RM5” funds.
We also should not forget that State of California local road maintenance funds effectively doubled with passage of SB 1 in 2017. Recall the public debate about state funding of local road maintenance, relating to statewide Proposition 6 in November 2018.
Here’s a county by countybreakdown of how the revenue could be spent:
4.75 percent of all revenues generated within the territory of the County of Alameda to the Alameda County Transportation Commission for public transit expenses and roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed-route transit.
19.20 percent of all revenues generated within the territory of the County of Contra Costa to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority for public transit expenses and roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed-route transit.
36.64 percent of all revenues generated within the territory of the County of San Mateo to the San Mateo County Transit District for public transit expenses and roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed-route transit.
84.37 percent of all revenues generated within the territory of the County of Santa Clara to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for public transit expenses and roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed-route transit.
10.38% of the 0.5% sales tax in Santa Clara County is reserved for Caltrain transit operations. The ability to spend up to 84.37% of RM5 revenues on “roadway repavement projects” is what will induce Santa Clara County voters and civic leaders who are transit skeptics to support RM5. The VTA Board would control how the 84.37% pot is spent – the VTA Board would have full discretion to reward its “friends” and punish its “critics” (West Valley cities).
One wonders if there are any reputable studies of the impacts of transit vehicles on roadway pavement. We suspect that in most of the Bay Area, the transit vehicles contribute to just a small percentage of the “wear and tear” on local roads. But RM5 perversely "punishes” transit vehicles. Transit policy activists could demand that VTA, well before the Nov. 2026 election, make a binding commitment that RM5 funds be allocated for “roadway repavement projects” based upon rational criteria relating to frequency and intensity of fixed-route transit use.
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The ballot question tested by EMC Research in Oct. 2025 includes “Repairing roads/potholes”.
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This is a very clever form of “greenwashing” of road maintenance projects in the guise of helping “transit.”
See the funding allocation in SB 63.
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