Senate Bill 63 was recently signed into law by Gavin Newsom, authorizing a half-cent sales tax measure to appear on the November 2026 ballot for voters in five Bay Area counties to decide on. The temporary14-year tax is estimated to raise $980 million to help maintain funding for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Muni, CalTrain, AC Transit and other regional transit systems.
Should the measure fail, regional transit authorities have already outlined contingency plans that include cutting services, closing stations and running fewer trains. By 2028, BART may even have to stop service entirely.
The importance of the measure is clear, as the fate of BART hangs in the balance.
In Contra Costa County, this bill carries particular importance because if the measure fails, BART plans to close all East Contra Costa County stations by July 2027. The closest remaining station would be Concord, a 20-minute drive from LMC’s Pittsburg campus.
Additionally, other parts of BART service could also be reduced, including service to Oakland International Airport (OAK), potentially leaving San Francisco International Airport (SFO) as the only airport accessible by transit.
The opinion of the Experience is that the half-cent sales tax required to keep BART alive is well worth the cost to taxpayers because of the benefits BART provides to the East Bay. It offers cheap, fast, reliable and easy transit to all, to a variety of destinations.
The amount already invested into the system is also difficult to overlook. The Antioch extension alone cost approximately $525 million and was the result of years of planning and effort to expand service further into East Contra Costa County.
As East Bay residents, we also have a responsibility to support BART because it makes life throughout the region much more accessible, even for those that do not use it every day. For events across the Bay Area, like San Francisco Pride or games at local sports venues, the massive surge of travelers eased by the fact that many people rely on BART instead of driving.
The loss of easy access to the wider Bay Area is difficult to fully quantify because the impact would not just be financial. BART’s Role in the Region, a 2024 report, outlines several effects of public transit use, including reduced traffic and increased economic activity throughout the Bay Area. The report found that trips from Antioch to SFO would take six hours longer if just 50% of the weekly BART riders switched to driving. Fewer people taking the train means more cars on the road, more traffic and fewer parking spaces available. Finding parking in San Francisco is already difficult, and additional drivers could make it nearly impossible.
