The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has thrown its support behind a ballot measure seeking to renew a quarter-cent sales tax underwriting the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system.
A board majority on Tuesday voted to place the measure on the June 2 ballot, consolidating it with the primary election and, in a second vote, authorized Chair Rebecca Hermosillo to submit a letter in support of the measure.
Four of Sonoma County’s five elected supervisors voted in favor of both motions. Supervisor David Rabbitt, who serves on SMART’s board of directors, was absent Tuesday. In a text Rabbitt said he was in Washington D.C. on behalf of a few local agencies including the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
SMART’s sales tax, which raises about $51 million annually, was passed by voters in 2008 and is set to expire in 2029. The new measure asks Sonoma and Marin voters to renew the tax for 30 years.
The train, which began service in 2017, operates on 48 miles of track between Larskpur and Windsor – about 30 miles shy of the distance initially promised to voters in 2008 – but SMART has contracts for an extension to Healdsburg, with sights set on ultimately reaching Cloverdale.
“SMART is growing, it’s providing the service that voters demanded in 2008. It’s become essential transportation for nearly 5,000 people a day,” said Supervisor Chris Coursey, who is also board chair for SMART. “To continue that service, to continue that growth, we need to continue the sales tax.”
The stakes are high – the sales tax makes up about half of the transit system’s revenue.
A similar measure seeking a 30-year extension failed in 2020 following an expensive opposition campaign bankrolled by Molly Gallaher Flater, whose development family are staunch foes of SMART. The measure fell short of the required two-thirds support it needed to pass.
This time around, the measure needs only a simple majority to pass thanks to a 2024 bill, authored by SMART-friendly former Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, which lowered the threshold by specifying that voters in the two counties can pursue a citizens’ initiative to place a renewal measure on the ballot.
Measures that qualify for the ballot via a citizens’ initiative need only a simple majority to pass.
Last November, the measure’s campaign, lead by a coalition of SMART advocates separate from the agency, submitted enough voter signatures needed to meet the threshold required to qualify for the ballot — 10% of the 488,090 total registered voters in Sonoma and Marin counties.
Whether the campaign will face opposition similar to 2020 remains to be seen.
The Gallaher family underwrote a newly released book “The Great Train Heist,” by Michael J. Coffino, which takes aim at SMART “from conception to current operation.” In recent weeks, many copies of the book have been sent to city and town councilmembers, county officials, and members of the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District.
The Board of Supervisors’ votes on Tuesday passed with minimal discussion, but Hermosillo and Supervisor Lynda Hopkins echoed Coursey in touting local need for the train.
“This is really good to help meet the needs of our community in getting from Place A to Place B,” Hermosillo said.
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