Muni’s fate will be in the hands of voters this fall, after a petition for a new parcel tax to fund the transit system gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, Mayor Daniel Lurie said Thursday.
The Stronger Muni for All Campaign gathered 18,469 signatures, well above the 10,000 needed to qualify. Voting officials will verify the total and eliminate invalid signatures.
“We’re going to continue to lead the nation in having a world-class transit system,” Lurie said.
The parcel tax is one of two measures San Francisco voters will decide in November to bail out mass transit. The other is a five-county regional sales tax that would raise nearly $1 billion annually for BART, Muni, Caltrain, and other Bay Area transit agencies.
Together, the measures are meant to address a $307 million budget shortfall at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency stemming from lagging ridership post-pandemic and the expiration of emergency federal funding. The parcel tax alone would generate $183 million annually.
Most homeowners would pay a base rate of $129 per year. Apartment building owners would pay a $249 base tax, with increases based on square footage. Commercial landlords face a $799 base tax plus size-based increases. Owners of rent-controlled buildings can pass through up to 50% of the tax to tenants, capped at $65 per unit per year.
Lurie has been among the measure’s most prominent backers, arguing that a healthy Muni system is key to the city’s economic recovery.
The stakes are steep. Muni has warned that if one or both measures don’t pass, it will slash service as soon as September 2027 — ending regular service at 9 p.m., cutting up to 20 bus lines, and running fewer buses on the remaining lines.
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