What's next for BART after voters approve sales tax

Voters in five Bay Area counties overwhelmingly supported a new sales tax to provide a financial lifeline to public transit. 61% voted yes on the regional transit measure, 39% no. The sales tax will go up a half a percent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. It will increase a full percent in the city of San Francisco. The regional transit tax is expected to raise about a billion dollars a year for SF Muni, AC Transit, Caltrain, and BART. And joining us in studio this morning to talk about it is BART's general manager, Bob Powers. Thank you so much for coming to the studio. And thank you for having me. Of course, 61% is a clear and overwhelming victory. Congratulations on that. Thank you so much. I'm grateful and I'm humbled and excited to move forward. So now that it's passed, what happens next? Yeah, so now that it's passed, that's going to allow BART BART is going to allow the other transit operators to continue to put out the great service that's out there right now. And as the BART general manager, I would say over the last few years, I've had the singular focus of improving the customer experience, right? And it starts with safety and security, and this measure is going to allow us to continue doing that. And I really do think it's a vote of confidence in BART. I think the voters have acknowledged the system improvements in the BART system. They have acknowledged that public transit in the Bay Area is going in the right direction. And probably most important, I think they've acknowledged the importance of a region investing in public transit. So $1 billion a year for all the transit agencies we just mentioned. How much is BART going to get? Yeah, so let me, a little bit on that. So it's about $1 billion a year. Thank you. That's the revenue that's going to be generated. About 60% of that goes to the transit operators and 30% goes to the, it's called return to source, goes back to the five counties, roughly, roughly about 30, 35% back to the five counties and the five counties allocate that out. And then there's roughly 5% that goes to regional measures like wayfinding and means-based fare programs like that. So of that 60%, about 300 million goes to BART. Now that BART is going to be getting $300 million a year, does that mean an end to BART's financial problems? Not directly, it doesn't. What it means is that we're going to continue to put out the service, the great service that we're putting out right now. Look, I'm 95% on time. Crime is down 40% right now. Um, If you and I are in the system right now, you'll see sworn officers and ambassadors walk in the train. So it's going to allow us to keep doing that. It doesn't solve all of our financial challenges that we have in the future. But what it does do is put us in a position to navigate those on our own without... out. Looking for help from the voters. Because BART and other transit agencies had really painted kind of this doomsday scenario if this transit tax hadn't passed. Can you now say that none of those forewarned cuts are going to happen? Can you guarantee that? I can. I can. With the passing of this measure, those cuts, you know, the reduced service, the closing, the closing of the stations and line segments, those are all off the table right now. It puts us in a position where moving forward, you know, Kind of BART is in control of its own destiny moving forward. And I think with the help of the voters and my grant, you know, being just so grateful that they overwhelmingly supported this measure, I think that puts us in a very good position in the Bay Area. Ridership has improved since the pandemic. But at the same time, the days of the expectation for most workers to report to work. Nine to five, five days a week, those days probably aren't coming back. No. What big changes does BART have to make to become more financially stable? Yeah, so a great question. We've got to continue doing what we're doing right now, is improving the rider experience. I always say, you know, I don't want to give anybody a reason not to take BART or public transit. Yeah, if they have to go to the grocery store or go to the... School or something like that, and they need their car, that's fine. But if there's an opportunity to take public transit, I want folks to take it. It's got to be safe. It's got to be clean. It's got to be reliable. It's got to be connected to the other transit agencies. Every other transit agency in the Bay Area connects into the BART system. So we've got to be coordinated there. And I think we're moving in the right direction for sure. 61% of voters approved it, but 40% did not. Some of the criticism about this transit tax was why not make cuts and make the agencies more efficient? Why did this have to be in the form of a sales tax increase? Why was there no other option? Well, you know, there was many, many discussions on that with the legislature and the leadership of Senator Weiner. Then Senator Wiener, I should say, and Senator Aravind. Now congressman-elect. Yes, now congressman. Thank you for that. And just great vision from the two of them leading these discussions. There was a lot of, you know, looking at what would pass, you know, from the voters and what needed to be packaged up together. Thank you. All of those variables were looked at, you know, what was the source of the revenue, you know, how big this was going to be, how long it was going to be. There was a lot of polling there, and the package that the voters just voted on and approved, as you said, 61 percent, was certainly the right package. You know, there were a lot of different variables that were looked at at the time. What are BART's biggest costs and expenses, and why can't there be any trimming? Yeah, so let me just say this, you know, as part of the regional measure, there are performance metrics, there are going to be accountability metrics that are there that we're going to be held accountable by the state legislature, there's going to be an oversight committee, and it's going to look at operational efficiencies, it's going to look at cost cutting elements, and it's going to look at Auxiliary generated revenue, and that's my term, but, you know, like our TOD program, Transit Oriented Development program, our communications ring in the bay with comms, and also our advertising program, those other sources that we can generate revenue from. And then, you know, couple that with all the accountability measures that are in the legislation, I think puts the Bay Area in a good position to be transparent and to be accountable. Operations, labor, maintenance. Oh, yeah, yeah. To your direct question. Oh, yeah, for sure. Easy, easy question. Sorry about not answering that. Labor is the biggest component, for sure, unquestionably. Labor is the biggest component there. And probably the second biggest component in our budget is our energy budget. You know, the power, electric, and the power that we, to run our trains. Okay, so that's what you'll be looking to make some more efficiencies in those areas in the future. Yes. Okay, all right. Bob Powers, general manager of BART, we thank you so much for coming in and talking with us about this important topic. Well, thank you. And once again, I wanted to thank the voters for their endorsement and their vote of trust in BART and Bay Area Public Transit. Okay. Great.