If you are avoiding unreliable dangerous and disease ridden San Fran buses and trains—you might have to finance the union controlled system.
“A measure that would place a new tax on Uber, Lyft and Waymo to fund the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has qualified for the November ballot.
Better yet for the measure’s supporters in these divided times, it has picked up the support from elected officials representing a broad range of The City’s political spectrum. Six of the members of the Board of Supervisors — including both Democratic Socialist Dean Preston and political moderate Joel Engardio — have endorsed the bill, as have mayoral candidates Daniel Lurie and Ahsha Safai.
“San Francisco deserves a world-class transit system,” Lurie told The Examiner, explaining his support for the measure. He continued: “To have a better San Francisco, we need Muni to be safe, reliable and fast, and we need it to efficiently bring people to where they need to go.”
The system has lost hundreds of millions and many riders—so why not steal from those who do not use it to keep union bosses in their high paying jobs. This is corruption—with a chance for voters to say NO. If not, add this to the quickening pace of the DOOM LOOP.
Measure to fund Muni by taxing Uber, Waymo heads to November ballot
Troy Wolverton, SF Examiner, 7/30/24 https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/uber-tax-funding-sfmta-heading-to-november-2024-ballot/article_c6e76886-4ec3-11ef-9d87-1b9e79bb5d8c.html
A measure that would place a new tax on Uber, Lyft and Waymo to fund the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has qualified for the November ballot.
Better yet for the measure’s supporters in these divided times, it has picked up the support from elected officials representing a broad range of The City’s political spectrum. Six of the members of the Board of Supervisors — including both Democratic Socialist Dean Preston and political moderate Joel Engardio — have endorsed the bill, as have mayoral candidates Daniel Lurie and Ahsha Safai.
“San Francisco deserves a world-class transit system,” Lurie told The Examiner, explaining his support for the measure. He continued: “To have a better San Francisco, we need Muni to be safe, reliable and fast, and we need it to efficiently bring people to where they need to go.”
Dubbed the Community Transit Act, the proposed ordinance would tax the revenue robotaxi and ride-hailing companies earn in San Francisco at a graduated rate that rises from 1% to 4.5% as that revenue increases. The measure would use the money raised — which its authors estimate to be $20 million to $30 million annually — to maintain or expand Muni service and the agency’s discounted-fare programs.
The new tax would come on top of 2019’s Proposition D, which placed a 1.5% to 3.25% tax on all ride-hailing fares in The City. Uber supported that measure, noted company spokesman Zahid Arab in an emailed statement. But it doesn’t support the new one, he said.
“We do not think now is the time to impose new taxes on San Francisco businesses,” Arab said in the statement.
Representatives from Waymo and Lyft — the other two ride-hailing companies operating in San Francisco — did not respond to requests for comment.
Lurie and Supervisor Connie Chan, who also supports the new measure, said they were sensitive to concerns about taxes The City places on businesses. Both said they support another ballot measure that would reform San Francisco’s business-tax system.
Both argued that it’s fair for The City to levy another tax targeted at the ride-hailing companies. Even if the Community Transit Act passes, the effective tax rate on rides with such companies would still be significantly less than that seen in Manhattan and other cities, Lurie said. And the private ride-hailing companies effectively compete against what is a public good, something that’s for the benefit of the entire public, Chan said.
“We want these [ride-hailing] companies to pay their fair share as they continue to dominate our roads,” she said.
The Community Transit Act comes as Muni is facing a massive deficit, thanks in part to the fact that ridership and fares haven’t recovered to the levels they were at before the COVID-19 pandemic and also to the end of federal pandemic-related financial support. In February, the agency estimated that despite cutting expenditures and increasing parking fines, it faces a $240 million deficit in its 2027 fiscal year. Muni has threatened to dramatically cut service if it’s not able to close its budget gaps.
The proposed measure also follows California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s decision last month to pull from consideration by the state Legislature a bill that would have authorized a regional measure to fund transit systems across the Bay Area. The San Francisco Democrat reportedly did that in the face of concerns from leaders in other counties in the region about how much of the money raised by the bill would stay in their counties.
Lurie, a political newcomer who is a nonprofit founder and an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, blamed the deficit on mismanagement by City Hall and Muni’s administrators as well as on public safety concerns that he said discourage people from riding.
“There’s going to be accountable leadership in a Lurie administration, which will start on Jan. 8, and we are going to make sure that they are spending our taxpayer dollars efficiently and wisely,” he said.
Backers of the measure now include Wiener; supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Dorsey, in addition to Chan, Engardio, Safaí and Preston; and Emma Heiken, the vice chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee.
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With public transit agencies struggling, it’s appropriate to tax private vehicles to help fund them, Dorsey said in a text message.
“I think a city’s commitment to socio-economic equity can be measured in how it funds public transit,” he said. He continued: “We should do everything we can to make sure [Muni is] fast, frequent, reliable, clean and safe for all.”
The Harvey Milk LQBTQ Democratic Club and the Transport Workers Union Local 250A, which represents Muni workers, have also endorsed the proposition.
The measure’s supporters — a collection of transit enthusiasts and activists — were particularly excited to win the support of the TWU Local, said Kat Siegal, one of the proposition’s cosponsors.
“We’re so thrilled to have them,” she said. “Obviously, they keep The City running.”
While two of her mayoral challengers have come out in support of the measure, Mayor London Breed has yet to take a stand on it. Breed’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
Community Transit Act supporters hope to continue talking with the mayor about the measure to win her backing, said Siegal, who is chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority’s Community Advisory Committee. Many officials seemed to be holding off on announcing their support until the proposition had qualified for the ballot, she said.
Supporters of the measure gathered 17,000 signatures in support of it — 10,000 more than needed.
In addition to picking up new backing from elected officials and organizations, supporters of the measure have also seen a surge in campaign contributions, Siegal said.
As of the end of last month, the campaign committee backing the measure had raised $121,578, according to filings it made with the San Francisco Ethics Commission. But the committee has now raised $200,000 after receiving two big contributions, Siegal said.
The measure’s supporters haven’t set a specific fundraising goal for the fall campaign but are hoping to raise about another $100,000 or $200,000, she said.
The campaign has also seen a jump in volunteers, Siegal said. It now has 180 active volunteers — up from the 123 who gathered signatures for the campaign — and 300 on a mailing list, she said.
Supporters have already been promoting the measure at community events, Siegal said. But they plan to ramp up their campaign after San Francisco election officials on Aug. 12 assign the measure a letter for the November ballot, she said. They’re planning on distributing flyers and buying online ads, she said.
“We are starting to prepare for our ground game,” Siegal said. Once the measure is assigned a letter, she continued, “we will really dive in.”
