When voters from Sonoma and Marin counties go to the polls for the statewide primary election in June, they will also be asked whether to extend a local sales tax that funds the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a resolution to place the measure on their county’s primary election ballot, and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is expected to pass a similar resolution in March.
The existing quarter-cent retail transactions and use tax is set to expire in 2029, but the proposed measure, put on the ballot as an initiative after organizers gathered tens of thousands of signatures, would continue the tax for 30 years without increasing the rate. That would happen if a majority of voters in the two counties support it.
According to the Friends of SMART, a citizens’ group that pushed for the tax initiative, the SMART Board of Directors could place the measure on the ballot themselves, but it would require a two-thirds majority of votes to pass. With a citizen initiative, only a simple majority is required to enact the sales tax extension.
“SMART carried over a million riders in FY 2025 on the train, and also over a million users of the pathways,” said Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett at Tuesday’s meeting, referring to systemwide data. “Twenty-five percent of those are youth, 17% are seniors, 33% of the riders don’t have access to a car. This is really a measure to move forward with place-making and transportation.”
Sackett is also the vice chair of the SMART board. The SMART District is a regional public transportation district established by the state Legislature in 2002 to plan, own, and operate passenger rail service and a parallel bicycle/pedestrian pathway in Sonoma and Marin counties.
Making tracks
SMART reports that Measure Q, approved in 2008 to fund the creation of the rail service, has already leveraged $735 million in outside grants.
SMART currently covers a 48-mile line with stations from Windsor in Sonoma County to Larkspur in Marin County. The agency holds more than 70 miles of railroad right-of-way in public ownership and plans a full buildout reaching Healdsburg and Cloverdale. The plans will reduce traffic on the U.S. Highway 101 corridor, which the state has identified as one of the Bay Area’s most congested freeway segments.
If voters approve the measure, funds would be dedicated to operating and maintaining SMART’s passenger rail and bicycle-pedestrian pathway network, completing planned expansions, and serving as a local match for an estimated $510 million in capital construction projects.
SMART’s Board of Directors unanimously accepted certification of the initiative petitions in January after the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters confirmed that an estimated 57,418 valid signatures were submitted, surpassing the needed 53,869 needed to qualify.
In total, 71,847 signatures were filed across Marin and Sonoma counties, meeting the requirement that at least 10 percent of the district’s registered voters support placing the measure on the ballot.
On June 2, voters will participate in a statewide primary election. The June ballot will include decisions on governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. House of Representatives and the state Legislature. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters on May 4.