What is it?

Prop RTM, the Connect Bay Area Transit Initiative, is a sales tax across five Bay Area counties to pay for transit operations. There is no single division of the money: the measure allocates each county's revenue separately, and the shares differ from county to county.

What the tax would fund

Here is how the money raised in San Francisco would be allocated:

• 62.87% to Muni, 29.14% to BART, and 3.97% to Caltrain for operations
• 1.40% to fare programs, including free and reduced-cost transfers and expanding Clipper START
• 0.97% to San Francisco Bay Ferry and 0.40% to Golden Gate Transit
• 0.56% to accessibility and 0.56% to mapping, wayfinding, and transit priority
• 0.13% to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to administer the tax

In the other four counties, a share goes to the county transportation agency, which may spend it on roadway repaving as well as transit.

Here's how each county's revenue would be allocated:

Percentages apply to the revenue generated within each county, so they are not comparable as dollar amounts.

San Francisco would pay the highest rate: 1%, double the 0.5% charged in the other four counties, which the measure attributes to "the heightened need for transit funding in the City and County of San Francisco."

The tax would run for 14 years, from April 1, 2027 to April 1, 2041, and the measure is estimated to raise about $980M per year across the five counties.

Here's that same table above, but with estimated dollar amounts:

Estimated first full year (FY2028). GrowSF calculation applying the allocation percentages in Section 12 of the ordinance to county revenue implied by MTC's published per-agency projections.

Administration and oversight

This is a regional measure covering Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. All five counties vote on it, but the results are combined into a single district-wide tally rather than counted county by county, so San Francisco cannot pass or defeat it on its own.

The district's governing board, which is the same board that governs the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, may amend the ordinance without returning to voters so long as the change furthers its purposes (including changing how much each transit system receives), but it cannot raise the tax or extend it without another vote. An independent oversight committee checks that the district distributes the money as the ordinance requires, but has no say over how the transit agencies spend what they receive.

Read the full annotated legal text →

Why vote Yes?

If BART runs out of money, there is no backup plan. Muni is a City department, so City Hall can always move money to it (which is the backstop Prop H is really about). BART is an independent district that lives on fares and its own dedicated sales tax. It can raise fares, but it cannot raise taxes on its own, and no county budget stands behind it. BART says it won't even draw on the state's emergency loan if this measure fails, because it would have no way to pay the loan back.

BART has already done the hard work. Since 2019 the region's big operators have documented more than $1B in savings, and BART runs at $375 per train hour, cheaper than Washington's Metro or Atlanta's MARTA. It is still $378M short next year, a number an independent review validated.

Here is what "no" looks like, in BART's own words. Starting January 2027: a 63% cut in train hours, three lines instead of five, a train every 30 minutes, closing at 9 p.m. seven days a week, and fares up 30%. If that isn't enough, July 2027 brings up to 15 station closures, fares up a cumulative 50%, and 1,200 layoffs. The last item on BART's contingency list is "stop passenger service."

Nobody wants to pay more sales tax, and it's unfortunate that this one falls hardest on lower-income residents, who already spend a larger share of their income on necessities, and that San Francisco pays double the other counties' rate. But we don't get to choose between a great plan and an OK plan. The choice is between a 63% service cut with 30% higher fares, or a modest sales tax that keeps transit running and riders moving.

The tax comes with guardrails. San Francisco's money stays home: every dollar raised here goes to Muni, BART, Caltrain, the ferry, and rider discounts, and San Francisco is the only county whose share cannot be spent on road paving. Agencies may not use the money to replace existing funding, counties can withhold up to 7% from an operator with dirty or unsafe service, and the tax sunsets in 14 years.

The economy of the entire Bay Area depends on keeping transit running. Vote yes on the Regional Transit Measure.