Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Monday, Oct. 13 that will give Monterey-Salinas Transit a chance to ask voters for more money, and shore up the agency’s projected revenue stream into the next decade.
Assembly Bill 761, introduced by Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, authorizes the MST board – by a two-thirds vote – to propose a ballot measure for a sales tax of up to $0.25.
This comes as MST’s Measure Q, a 2014 ballot measure that imposed a one-eighth-cent sales tax in Monterey County to fund transportation services for seniors, veterans and those with disabilities, expires in 2030. Measure Q was the first-ever countywide sales tax measure dedicated to public transit, and passed with 72 percent of the vote; currently, its revenues exceed $13 million annually and make up about a quarter of MST’s budget.
MST General Manager Carl Sedoryk says challenges loom ahead because federal and state gas tax revenues are declining with the increasing adoption of electric vehicles.
Sedoryk says increased revenues are critical in order to achieve the state’s mandated goal that 100-percent of MST’s fleet be zero-emission by 2040. He estimates that it will cost at least $130 million; in MST’s fleet of 163 buses, just four are currently electric.
He adds there is currently no tax to fund MST fixed routes – which serve about 90 percent of its ridership – and that those are dependent entirely on state and federal sources. “We may need a local source to expand [that network], and this will allow us to make that ask, to start the climb.”
Sedoryk sees two windows to potentially float another ballot measure or extension of Measure Q – in November 2026 or 2028 – and says MST will conduct polling in the coming months to see where voters are. “We’re only going to put it on the ballot if we think we’re going to win,” he says.