Vote No on Prop 43: Protect Local Funding for Safer Streets
CalBike urges Californians to vote NO on Proposition 43. The measure would make it harder for communities to approve citizen-led taxes for safer streets, reliable transit, and other essential local services. CalBike’s vision for California is a place where a bicycle can carry more of your daily life: the ride to school, the trip to the grocery store, the connection to a bus or train.
We have worked tirelessly to help California as a whole be knit together by Complete Streets, with signature legislation like SB 960. In this future, safe bikeways and reliable transit work together, putting more destinations within reach. Making a walking-friendly street into a biking-friendly neighborhood and less car-dependent regions.
This November, Bay Area voters will consider two measures that could help sustain those connections. San Francisco’s Proposition H proposes a parcel tax for Muni operations, which the No on Prop 43 campaign estimates would raise $160 million or more annually. Regional Measure RTM proposes a five-county sales tax supporting BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit, raising roughly $1 billion a year. Both reached the ballot through voter signatures and need a majority vote to pass.
Proposition 43 would make this kind of community-led investment harder in the future. It would raise the approval threshold for citizen-led local special taxes from a majority to two-thirds. A proposal supported by 60% of voters could fail.
“Prop 43 would eviscerate our democratic right to organize for the transit our communities need, from better bus service to safer streets,” said Move LA Executive Director Eli Lipmen. CalBike opposes Prop 43 because communities should retain the power to organize around a transportation need and approve a way to pay for it.
The No campaign is clear that Prop 43 would not reach back to measures already decided. Its warning concerns future renewals of measures such as Prop H and RTM, as well as new proposals for service expansions, safety upgrades, and fare programs. This November’s transit measures illustrate a funding tool that communities across California should be able to keep using.
For CalBike, the larger goal is a California where more people can leave home on a bicycle and know they can get where they need to go. We want a safe route through the neighborhood, a useful connection to a station, and a train that comes often enough to make the trip work. Each piece makes the others more valuable. A future full of bicycles becomes possible through those connections, and through communities having the power to invest in them.
