A sales tax increase to fund the Bay Area’s struggling transit systems appears to be headed to the ballot in November 2026.

The California Legislature up against its deadline to pass bills last Friday approved SB 63, which allows a ballot measure to move forward, ending a multiyear political debate over how to make up for pandemic revenue loss across systems like BART, Muni, and Caltrain — and who should pay for it. Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the bill by the Oct. 12 deadline.

“Keeping our trains and buses running frequently and reliably is essential for the future of the Bay Area,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who authored the bill and stressed that the measure is critical to ensuring the Bay Area’s transit systems don’t go off a “fiscal cliff.”

Since ride

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