The Bay Area’s public transit systems are at risk of being decimated as soon as next year, and voters are divided on whether to help salvage them by approving a sales tax increase, according to a poll released this week.
Only 48% of respondents said they would vote for November’s Regional Transit Measure, or RTM, according to a poll conducted by Embold Research for Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Bay Area News Group; 34% said they would not, and 18% said they were still undecided.
The measure is designed to bail out transit agencies across the region, including BART, SF’s Muni, Caltrain and Oakland’s AC Transit, which are all facing severe budget shortfalls. If voters pass the measure, it will increase sales tax by 0.5 percentage point in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Alameda counties and by 1 percentage point in San Francisco, and is expected to generate roughly $980 million annually for the next 14 years…