By Nate Horrell and Alice Mosley, HANC Board
HANC’s November general membership meeting heard an update from Chris Arvin on behalf of the Muni Now, Muni Forever Coalition, of which HANC is a member. Chris provided an update on the state of competing proposals to save Muni from a looming deficit that would result in severe and crippling service cuts if not a death spiral to our public transit system. Chris also serves as vice president of the SFMTA’s Citizen’s Advisory Council.
Chris reported that a regional sales tax measure will likely go before voters in November 2026 and stands to benefit Muni. Mayor Lurie has proposed a local parcel tax measure to complement the sales tax measure on the same ballot. Although both local proposals are structured as variable parcel taxes, taxing large buildings more than smaller buildings, the Muni Now, Muni Forever coalition has devised a more progressive and ambitious version of the local parcel tax which differs from Lurie’s proposal in several important ways:
- it will not just maintain service but seeks to expand and improve it,
- it does not cap the amount of tax paid on large buildings (unlikely the special treatment to the city’s largest real estate owners in Lurie’s proposal) and
- The Mayor’s proposal allows pass-through of the tax by landlords onto rent controlled tenants, which Muni Now’s proposal prohibits.
HANC members asked Chris about lessons learned from the successful yet unsuccessful experience of 2024’s Prop. L campaign. They shared the impressive work done by an army of volunteer signature gatherers. HANC members repeatedly asked if the coalition had considered the interrelated transit impacts of the proposed upzoning. Chris responded that the coalition had not and that frankly the upzoning was a divisive topic among transit advocates.
Members of the public are invited to join Muni Now, Muni Forever’s Rally at City Hall in favor of their better proposal on December 8th at 12 pm. More details of the plan can be found at https://muniforever.org/home#proposal