Getting to yes: Legislators, agencies, and stakeholders negotiate amendments to Connect Bay Area Act
Last week, the critically-important Connect Bay Area Act legislation (SB 1031 Wiener/Wahab), authorizing a regional transportation funding measure, was amended with changes responding to concerns from transit agencies and other stakeholders.
The amendments refine the funding formula to ensure funding for all counties including those that aren’t facing imminent operating funding gaps; clean up language about a consolidation study; and set guardrails on MTC’s authority to coordinate service.
More work is still needed to refine the bill. We hope these amendments make progress encouraging stakeholders to continue to negotiate toward legislation that can pass and enable a successful measure. Despite the various needs being negotiated, the Connect Bay Area Act, and the regional funding measure it would authorize, is still the Bay Area’s best hope at identifying funding to prevent massive transit service cuts.
New funding formula clarifies benefits to counties, agencies
The primary purpose of the legislation is to authorize a ballot measure in 2026 or beyond that would, if passed by the voters, provide operating funding to support transit at risk of cuts due to budgets devastated by the pandemic, and to provide more coordinated, rider-friendly, and frequent service to the transit system across the region, in line with voter demands for better transit.
However, counties and agencies facing lower budget impacts from the pandemic wanted to be assured that the measure would provide broad benefits addressing their needs. The bill includes amendments advanced by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission that clarify the funding distribution, guaranteeing that a minimum of 70% of funds raised by the measure would be spent in the county they came from. The funding distribution also identifies minimum thresholds for funding going directly to projects in each county for safe streets and “connectivity” capital projects.
Guardrails for MTC’s strengthened network management powers
The amended bill adds “guardrails” that transit agencies were seeking to prevent potential unintended consequences from the increased network management powers the bill provides to MTC to coordinate fares, schedules, signs, and other customer experience improvements.
The guardrails clarify that the network management powers do not allow MTC to do any of the following:
Access funds not allocated by the Commission, such as local sales tax revenues;
Implement policies interfering with the legal obligations of labor contracts;
Restrict the use of a logo outside of the regional mapping and wayfinding standards; or
Pursue actions that negatively impact transit service or maintenance.
We hope that these provisions help bring along more transit agency leaders who have been concerned about potential harm that could come about from coordinating service. Compared to international best practices, where the mandates of network manager authorities are broad, this approach is very cautious.
Cleaning up language about consolidation study
Over the winter break, the Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire required the authorizing legislation for a regional measure, previously SB 925, introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, be integrated with a bill Senator Aisha Wahab had introduced calling for a study on transit agency consolidation in the Bay Area. The combined bill was assigned a new number, SB 1031, and now has joint authorship from both senators.
Wahab’s earlier bill introduced last year had called for a plan to consolidate all 27 agencies into one. Responding to numerous concerns from many stakeholders, the most recently published amendments to SB 1031 clarify that the study will analyze multiple options for consolidation. The language adds more nuance to the study, analyzing benefits and disbenefits to riders, and the administrative, financial, legal, contractual and governance feasibility of various forms of consolidation. The amendments require assessment of the impact that consolidation would have on wages, work conditions, and pension and retirement benefits of workers.
The amendments add nuance to the options being studied, including options to combine back office functions, combine boards of two or more agencies, or creating umbrella structures where agencies operate with separate boards; and coordination options including co-locating facilities, collaborating on vehicle purchases, and more. There is also new language about avoiding elimination of programs and services. The new amendments require a report to the legislature, rather than directing a plan for consolidation. The amendments address concerns raised that the previous language required a predetermined conclusion.
Transportation Demand Management language needs refinement
The bill includes provisions to update the existing Commuter Benefit law to enable an employer-provided regional transit pass to be used to fulfill commute benefit requirements, and for the ballot measure to require employers located near transit to purchase the transit pass. Business organizations and transit advocacy organizations believe this section needs more work, and MTC staff is working on further refinements.
There will be additional opportunities to amend the bill, before it goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee in May, and other windows throughout the legislative session.
Getting to Yes
At the MTC Legislation Committee meeting on April 12, where the committee unanimously supported amendment recommendations, MTC Chair Pedroza strongly encouraged his colleagues, and a variety of stakeholders who’ve been expressing opinions, to continue working together to “get to yes” on legislation that will pass in Sacramento and a measure that will pass at the ballot.
Getting to yes is critical since there is no good “Plan B.”
While voting “yes” on the proposal to move it forward, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan continued to raise concerns on behalf of Santa Clara County that they want to protect the ability to reauthorize their local sales tax measures, for example by having a say on when the regional measure goes on the ballot or whether to be able to opt out.
These are understandable concerns, however, the alternatives also pose significant risks, including to local transit. There would be different and big political challenges in a world where each agency tries to provide funding with single-agency ballot measures.
Imagine an election year when Santa Clara County and San Mateo County voters are asked to vote to fund transit, but a regional measure has not passed, and Caltrain and BART are running skeleton service. It is hard to see Santa Clara or San Mateo County voters being eager to fund transit when they see that the regional system is failing.
Imagine an election year when Caltrain, BART, Muni, and AC Transit have separate measures on a ballot. Voters in San Francisco would be asked whether to support funding for Muni, BART, OR Caltrain. Voters in Alameda County would be asked whether to support BART or AC Transit. This seems like, if anything, a more risky scenario.
Also, according to the results of repeated polling, voters, on the other hand, are much more likely to support a regional funding measure if funding brings about a more coordinated system.
Some local leaders have suggested the region can afford to wait another year to refine the legislation, since a measure would not go on the ballot until 2026 at the earliest. However, the legislation would allow for a signature-gathering campaign that would enable a lower, 50%+1 voter threshold that would make a measure much easier to pass. Waiting until 2025 would make it much more difficult to organize and fund a citizens’ initiative, resulting in a harder-to-achieve two-thirds voter threshold.
Given the risks of the alternatives, we strongly urge all the stakeholders to continue to negotiate to “get to yes.
Next milestones
Important milestones coming up include legislative committee hearings on April 23 (Senate Transportation), April 24 (Revenue and Tax), MTC workshops on April 24 and 25 diving into more depth on MTC’s overall funding for the region’s transit system, Peninsula corridor transit board meetings on May 1 (SamTrans) and May 2 (Caltrain, VTA), and a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in May. Riders should speak up at all of these opportunities, to encourage their elected leaders to engage productively in regional funding measure discussions, so that our region can “get to yes”. There is no viable Plan B for Bay Area transit.