June 19, 2026

A Transit Cheerleader Without Blinders

On Friday, June 26, the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association will host former state Senator Steve Glazer for a lunch discussion of BART accountability and the regional transit sales tax now headed for the November ballot. Glazer, who represented an East Bay district covering much of Contra Costa and part of Alameda County until his retirement in 2024, has become one of the most credible skeptics of that measure, and his recent interview with POLITICO offers a preview of the candid conversation we expect on the 26th.

Glazer is no opponent of public transit. He describes himself as “a transit cheerleader, but not one with blinders on,” and that is exactly what makes his critique worth hearing. His argument is that BART and its peer agencies have spent years warning of a fiscal cliff while declining to take the difficult steps that would actually close their roughly $400 million shortfall. By his account, BART operating expenses have risen more than 43 percent over four years and staffing has grown by 274 positions in three years, even as ridership remains down by more than half from its pre-pandemic peak. Rather than renegotiating labor costs, trimming executive salaries, or adjusting schedules to match demand, he contends the agencies have reached instead for a regressive sales tax that would fall hardest on the lower-income riders they claim to serve.

He is especially pointed about the gap between the agency’s warnings and the sacrifices it has asked of its own workforce. More than 100 BART employees, he notes, already earn $285,000 or more, and he questions where their commitment is to an agency that says it is going off a fiscal cliff. If the alternative to new revenue is the loss of more than 1,000 jobs, as BART has suggested, Glazer argues that should be a call for the unions and management to find savings now, in a way that both protects jobs and rebuilds public trust.

Glazer also draws a connection that should resonate with our members. A half-cent regional sales tax, rising to a full cent in San Francisco, does not simply fund transit. It crowds out the taxing capacity that cities, counties, and school districts depend on for everything else, and it locks the region into a funding model he considers unsustainable. He favors a larger and more stable state subsidy instead, and he points to California’s open-ended spending on high-speed rail as evidence that the real problem is misplaced priorities rather than a simple shortage of money.

We expect a lively discussion and we hope you will join us. You can read the full POLITICO interview before the event, and you can register for the June 26 lunch through the event link below.

An Update on Measures B and G

In our last issue, Denise Kalm reported the early returns showing Measures B and G going down to defeat. The county has since updated its count and the results are now nearly final. Measure B, the countywide sales tax increase, was rejected by 56.88 percent to 43.12 percent, a margin of nearly fourteen points. Measure G, the Contra Costa Community College District bond, drew an almost even split at 50.11 percent yes to 49.89 percent no, but because Prop 39 Community College bonds require a 55 percent supermajority, the measure fell almost five points short of passage. With all 938 precincts reporting and turnout at 44.73 percent, these results remain unofficial only until the county completes its canvass.

Our results did not go unnoticed. In a June 19 article, The New York Times set Contra Costa’s votes within a statewide pattern, reporting that the pass rate for roughly 90 local measures this June hovered near 60 percent, well below the 75 percent that has long been typical. Most tellingly, Supervisor John Gioia, who championed Measure B, conceded that the county is seeing “voter fatigue on tax measures” and said he is now worried about the regional transit measure on the November ballot. We share his reading of the electorate, if not his opinion of higher sales taxes, and that is exactly why our attention now turns to the November campaign.

Dawn Weisz Departs MCE Following Negative Publicity

Members who joined us this past February heard directly from Dawn Weisz, the longtime chief executive of MCE, the public power agency once known as Marin Clean Energy that now serves more than 600,000 accounts across Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, and Solano counties. As we noted then, and in our earlier reporting on the agency’s finances, MCE’s management invited hard questions. This week those questions caught up with it. MCE announced that Weisz’s last day was Wednesday, June 17, offering no explanation and saying it would have no further comment. Chief Operating Officer Vicken Kasarjian, who had served as acting chief executive since Weisz went on leave last month, will continue in that role while the board recruits a successor.

Her departure follows months of mounting scrutiny over energy contracts, transparency, and executive pay, including a November raise that lifted her salary to nearly $570,000. Days before her exit, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury issued a report concluding that the MCE board had repeatedly failed to govern the agency, which runs on roughly $800 million a year, for most of the past decade, and documenting how Weisz had steadily consolidated power since 2017, including through multimillion-dollar energy contracts and executive hires that violated the board’s own rules. For an agency that supplies electricity to so many Contra Costa households and businesses, this is a governance failure that warrants our continued attention. We appreciate the scrutiny applied to MCE by Marin’s elected officials and local newspaper, and wish we would see a similar level of oversight here in Contra Costa.

Upcoming Events

CoCoTax Lunch, June 26: Former State Senator Steve Glazer Discusses BART Accountability

Friday, June 26, 2026 | 11:45am – 1:15pm PDT

CoCoTax Lunch, July 24: County Budget Overview with County Administrator Monica Nino

Friday, July 24, 2026 | 11:45am – 1:15pm PDT

Although we will not have a lunch in August, we will hold a members Zoom call on or about August 12 to discuss CoCoTax recommendations for the November ballot.

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