BART Safety, Reliability and Traffic Relief

(requires 66.6667% “yes” votes to pass)

The way it is now: 

The BART system is 44 years old. BART officials say that many parts of the system have worn out, and need to be repaired or replaced. These improvements would cost a lot of money.

What Measure RR would do: Measure RR would allow BART to sell up to $3.5 billion in bonds. By selling bonds, BART would get up to $3.5 billion to spend on improving its system.

Most of this money (90%) would pay for improvements to tracks, tunnels, stations, power systems, train control systems, and repair facilities. The remaining 10% would pay for ways to reduce crowding, and for helping seniors and people with disabilities use BART.

Measure RR funds would be audited every year. A citizens’ oversight committee would make sure the money is used correctly.

Financial effects: 

To repay the bonds, BART would increase property taxes. In 2017, property taxes would go up by a rate of $2.02 per $100,000 of assessed property value. This means that if the county assessor says a property is worth $300,000, the property owner will pay $6.06 in additional tax for Measure RR.

Property taxes would continue to go up in future years, but they should not go higher than $17.49 per $100,000 of assessed property value. The property tax increase would expire in 2065.

People for Measure RR say:

• Measure RR has detailed plans for how funds will be spent.

• Audits and the citizens’ oversight committee will make sure that Measure RR funds are spent according to plan.

People against Measure RR say: 

• BART should have been saving money to repair its system, but it decided to overpay its employees instead. • Measure RR will raise taxes and increase BART’s debt.