We have a timely event for you this month. As BART and other local transit agencies face a fiscal crisis arising from lower ridership and the exhaustion of emergency federal COVID-19 funding, we will be hearing from BART Board Director Matthew Rinn on Tuesday, November 18^th at Noon. The event is FREE and ONLINE, so it will be much easier to attend! Please register in advance at this Zoom link.

Transit agencies would like voters to pass a sales tax measure in November 2026. This measure is authorized by SB 63, a bill proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener and signed by Governor Newsom last month.

It would give Contra Costa County voters the option of adding one-half percent to existing sales tax rates. Four other counties in the Bay Area will be voting with us, with San Francisco considering a full one percent increase.

If voters agree to the tax hike, total sales taxes around our County would range from 9.25% in unincorporated areas (as well as in Brentwood, and Danville) to 10.75% in El Cerrito and Pinole. Over half of Contra Costa residents will live in cities and towns imposing total sales taxes of 10% or more.

It is also worth mentioning that a significant portion of our current sales taxes already go to transit. We pay 0.5% to support BART, AC Transit, and even SF Muni which very few of us use. We also pay 0.5% to fund the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which supports local and express bus services, paratransit, ferries, and BART improvements, as well as road projects.

Cap and Tax

Advocates often justify higher transit taxes as necessary to forestall a climate apocalypse. But since California accounts for only 0.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, new state and local taxes have, at best, a tiny impact on the trajectory of global warming. CoCoTax Executive Committee member Mark Fernwood offers other reasons to doubt the value of California’s climate tax regime.

California extended its cap-and-trade scheme through 2045. Now known as “cap and invest”, the program costs Californians about $5 Billion each year. It is largely a tax on energy and transportation. The argument for this is that revenues would be used to pay for projects that would “offset climate change effects” by reducing or capturing CO₂ emissions. Selling “carbon credits” is a multi-billion-dollar business with little oversight. Projects funded by the carbon emission permits are numerous, varied and of questionable effectiveness.

For example, the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project has been partially financed through this tax and is set to receive an additional $20 billion of cap-and-investment funds between now and 2045. HSR was justified, in part, as a replacement for aircraft flights. But if the project fails to reach San Francisco or Los Angeles, it will replace few if any flights while generating large volumes of CO₂ during construction.

The CA Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates, currently, that cap-and-invest adds $0.23 to each gallon of gas but that could rise to $0.74 per gallon. Changes in this tax program are administered by CARB (California Air Resources Board.): an unelected body that has the authority to tax and regulate without review. Their assessments are placed upon any source of CO₂ such as power generation. As power and transportation costs are passed on through every product and service we buy, we all pay. Our CA electric rates are among the highest in the nation (according to the US Energy Information Administration) To sell this, “Climate Credits” are being given as small offsets on our utility bills.

The “Cap and Trade” tax scheme was based upon computer models that predicted dire consequences from “global warming,” that would result from increased CO₂. As CO₂ is dissipated worldwide, the current concentration is 0.04% of air. Before industrialization we are told it was 0.028%. All sides on this issue also agree that CO₂ is not the most important warming gas, it is water vapor.

December Meeting

Rather than take our normal year-end break, we’re going to give members and guests more programming in December.

Join us for another FREE ONLINE meeting Tuesday, December 9^th at Noon as we hear from Contra Costa Community College District President Andy Li. Please register at this Zoom link.