BIA|Bay Area is joining a broad coalition of community organizations in support of a half-cent transportation sales tax measure headed for the March 2020 ballot in Contra Costa County. The Contra Costa Transportation Authority adopted the final measure language on Aug. 28, 2019. It now goes before the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and the county’s 18 city councils, where it must receive approval from the county and a majority of the cities that represent a majority of the population. While no one wants to pay more taxes, without an influx of new transportation dollars, the county and its cities will rely even more heavily on already high impact fees charged to new development. The proposed 35-year extension of the county’s existing transportation sales tax would raise $3.6 billion for cutting-edge transportation improvements and new infrastructure for roads, rail and transit. This is Contra Costa’s second attempt to extend the tax after falling just short of the required two-thirds support from voters in November 2016. Measure proponents believe that the high Democratic voter turnout anticipated for the March presidential primary coupled with the lack of competing tax measures will help close the gap that defeated the measure four years ago. For questions or comments, contact BIA’s Lisa Vorderbrueggen at lvorderbrueggen@biabayarea.org.
