More than $545 million in Bay Area bridge tolls are now free to fund transit and highway projects across the region after the California Supreme Court ended a legal battle between a crusading anti-tax group and the Bay Area’s bridge authority.
Transit planners are breathing a collective sigh of relief after the court decision on Tuesday. If the lawsuit from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association succeeded the region’s entire transportation financing map would have been upended. Projects like BART through San Jose, ferry terminal expansions in Berkeley and San Francisco, and extending Caltrain to downtown San Francisco faced the potential for further delays.
“It’s certainly something that’s been a cloud over us for the past four and a half years,” said Thomas Hall, a spokesperson for Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which runs the San Francisco Bay Ferry. The ferry has been counting on the funding measure to back $300 million in infrastructure projects along with vital operating funds to maintain current service levels. “It really put our business, our purpose, in the crosshairs.”
The litigation centered around Regional Measure 3, a massive 2018 ballot measure approved by 55% of Bay Area voters to increase bridge tolls by $1 in 2019, 2022, and again in 2025. The measure is expected to generate $4.45 billion over the coming decades for projects aimed at combating traffic congestion.
But the money flowing from millions of drivers passing through the Bay Area’s seven state-owned bridges has been trapped in legal limbo, locked away in a Union Bank account pending the litigation. In another twist, the court tied the fate of Bay Area bridge tolls to a separate dispute between residential landlords and the City of Oakland’s garbage and recycling fees. Plaintiffs in both cases argued that government fees functioned as new taxes and thus required a two-thirds majority to pass.
Despite the legal uncertainty, mega-projects have moved forward under the somewhat risky assumption that the Bay Area Toll Authority would prevail in the lawsuit. If the court ruled against the authority, drivers would have been reimbursed to the tune of $545 million.
“This is the largest regional measure that’s been passed in Bay Area history,” said Emily Loper, a vice president at the Bay Area Council, which spearheaded advocacy on the toll bridge increases. “The voters who passed this measure are already paying for that for the tolls and now they can finally start to reap the benefits.”
Even before the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association stepped in Regional Measure 3 was contentious. The nine-county measure was rejected by voters in Contra Costa and Solano counties but buoyed by strong support in San Francisco and the South Bay.
Tolls across all Bay Area bridges, excluding the Golden Gate Bridge, rose to $7 a trip in 2022 for commuters not using carpool or clean-air vehicles. In 2025 drivers will pay $9 to cross the Bay Bridge at peak congestion.
Tim Bittle, director of legal affairs for the taxpayers association, lamented the decision. Bay Area bridges are now akin to state parks, where the government can “exclude the public from entering unless they pay a fee to make use of it,” said Bittle. “When it comes to bridge (tolls) the sky is the limit.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com