San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and supporters of a proposed property tax increase to create long-term money dedicated to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency assembled at Mission Dolores Park on Tuesday to launch a signature-gathering campaign to qualify the measure for the ballot in November.
The measure, titled “Stronger Muni For All,” would progressively raise parcel taxes in the city for both residential and commercial properties using a range of rates, starting with a flat base rate increase of $129 for single-family residential properties under 3,000 square feet, which would cover about 95% of residential properties, according to a statement from the Stronger Muni For All campaign.
Rents could be increased by about $65 a year for renters. The largest commercial properties would pay $400,000 a year, according to the campaign.
Lurie said shoring up the public transit agency’s long-term budget was essential to the city’s survival.
“There is no path to making San Francisco or the Bay Area more affordable without public transit,” Lurie told a crowd of supporters at the 20th Street Muni J-Church stop at the park’s southwest corner.
The funding initiative is separate from a regional ballot measure called Connect Bay Area but is backed by some of the same groups. That initiative would increase the sales tax in several counties to create some local funding but would still leave the SFMTA short of its projected annual deficits of more than $300 million. The Connect Bay Area measure would appear on ballots in multiple counties if it receives enough signatures to qualify, whereas the Stronger Muni For All ballot measure would be limited to San Francisco voters.
Unlike the regional measure, which will divvy up funding between multiple regional agencies, including BART and Caltrain, the local tax will be controlled by San Francisco and will be dedicated to Muni.
Lurie said both were critical for the city’s recovery from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw downtown offices clear out and Muni ridership plunge. Muni has since slowly recovered and is at about 75% of the level of ridership it was in 2019 on weekdays and 92% what it was on weekends, according to the Stronger Muni For All campaign.
But it’s still not enough, and transit agencies across the region are depending on critical ballot measures to gain stability.
“Failure to pass this measure and Connect Bay Area, the regional measure, will reverse the progress we’re feeling and seeing in every corner of this city,” Lurie said.
The Stronger Muni For All proposed ballot measure and signature gathering campaign is being led by a political action committee started by Lurie, whose push brought together a broad coalition of supporters on Tuesday, including several members of the Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, multiple labor unions, and public transit advocates.
The measure’s top funders are the digital payment company Ripple, Airbnb and Visa, according to the campaign’s website and its press releases announcing the signature gathering effort.
It is also being supported by San Francisco Transit Riders, a nonprofit transit advocacy group that criticized Lurie’s decision to expand Waymo’s access to Market Street in downtown last year, arguing it would hurt Muni service by creating more traffic on the road, delaying buses, and steering people — perhaps autonomously — away from public transit at a critical time in the system’s recovery.
The Teamsters are also lobbying for the tax to benefit Muni. The day before, the labor union urged San Francisco lawmakers to further regulate autonomous vehicles such as Waymo and other autonomous vehicles planned to debut on San Francisco roads, including Amazon’s Zoox.
Lurie declined to answer a question about whether Waymo’s expansion downtown competes with Muni and said the question was not relevant to the tax measure.
Failure to pass this measure and Connect Bay Area, the regional measure, will reverse the progress we’re feeling and seeing in every corner of this city.
Mayor Daniel Lurie
“We’re here to talk about transit,” he said.
The Stronger Muni For All parcel tax would raise an estimated $160 million annually and would go into effect in the fiscal year beginning in July 2027 and expire after 15 years. An oversight committee would be created to ensure the money is used solely for Muni.
Its kickoff event came about a week after Lurie proposed cutting a transfer tax for high-value properties in half. That legislative measure would be revenue neutral by eliminating tax breaks for other properties that are in foreclosure. Supporters of the Stronger Muni For All parcel tax say it could let the transit agency start to think about expanding service rather than constantly facing cuts.
Kat Siegal, a public transit advocate, said the funding that will be created could help avoid a similar situation that unfolded in 2020 when people were unable to use public transit because of government and private business shutdowns.
“Without new funding, we’re facing the same catastrophic cuts,” Siegal said. “Only this time, San Francisco isn’t sheltering in place. So, not only would we be stranding out most vulnerable neighbors again, the entire city would grind to a halt. We can’t let that happen, and that’s why advocates spent the last year fighting for a truly innovative funding measure that will allow us to stop talking about cuts and start talking about growing service the way San Francisco deserves.”
The measure must gather 10,600 signatures by July 6, which is 120 days before the general election.