Today, California lawmakers secured more than one billion dollars in funding for public transit through 2026.
In May, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed cutting one-and-a-half billion dollars that had been promised to Bay Area transit agencies. The proposal came at a particularly bad time, as four of the region’s transit systems are facing major budget deficits.
Now, the state has recommitted more than a billion dollars and is giving an additional 750 million dollars as a loan. The money will help keep transit agencies afloat until next year. Then, San Francisco, Contra Costa, and Alameda Counties will vote on whether to increase sales tax by half a cent to fund the agencies.