Joseph Krist

Publisher

TRANSIT FUNDING

Governor Newsome signed legislation (SB 63) allowing for a ballot item to appear on the November 2026 ballot to increase funding for mass transit across the Bay Area. If approved, the measure would add a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties to fund regional systems like BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, the San Francisco Bay Ferry, and the San Mateo County bus system. In San Francisco, the rate would be 1 cent to cover additional San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency deficits.

The bill authorizes two ways to qualify the measure. The first option is for a transit board representing agencies across the Bay Area to send it to voters in November 2026, a harder battle because new taxes typically require a two-thirds majority approval. If the item appears as a voter initiative, it would need only a simple majority to pass. A legislative analysis of the bill estimated that a ballot measure could raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually through the tax for transit systems, and would likely “reduce pressure on the state to fund them.”

The final version of the bill includes enhanced accountability requirements for transit systems. In Illinois, a fall session of the Legislature will have to confront the issue of transit funding head on. The primary issue for many is the need for accountability. That includes the potential merger of management responsibilities for the three systems serving Chicago. The existence of three boards of directors for the systems has been along standing problem. Any funding legislation will, like the California legislation, include provisions regarding management.

Seminole County, FL officials have approved a new two-mile toll connector to Orlando Sanford International Airport. The Central Florida Expressway Authority voted to approve construction of the connector linking State Road 417 to Orlando Sanford International Airport. Specifics on toll pricing and funding sources for the $200 million cost have not yet been released. Officials have not provided a construction start date or timeline for completion.

In Florida, Brightline has announced changes to its scheduling to address demands for more frequent service. It’s a mixed bag as hourly round trips between Miami and Orlando will be reduced from the current 15 to 10, departing about every two hours, while short-distance frequencies between Miami and West Palm Beach jump to 18 each way including the Orlando trains. fares within South Florida are being revised to fixed commuter-style “peak” and “off-peak” amounts according to trip length, rather than rising or falling based on percentage of capacity sold, as Miami-Orlando pricing will continue to do.

NEW YORK BUDGET REALITIES VS.  RHETORIC

As the potential election of Zohran Mamdani approaches, there has been much discussion about how the City divides its resources to satisfy the demands of its diverse and always changing populace. This is the time of the year when much is said about how the City spends its money. There is usually a mixture of hyperbole and disinformation that the average voter doesn’t really figure out. Information to offset those efforts often lacks for real data.

Helpfully, the NYC Independent Budget Office (IBO) has provided some real data. If you focus on the campaigns, some of it may surprise folks. IBO looked at spending in terms of how many dollars out of each hundred dollars is spent. The largest share of the budget, $29.71 out of every $100, goes to the Education budget category, which exclusively contains the Department of Education (DOE) which runs New York City Public Schools.

$16.37 out of every $100 goes to the Human Services budget category, which includes activities like administering food assistance, cash assistance, and rental support, running the City’s shelter system, overseeing child welfare and juvenile justice, and providing meals and seniors centers to aging adults. $3.49 out of every $100 go towards the health budget category, which includes spending on activities like public health programming, enforcing health regulations, responding to health emergencies, disease prevention, and funding public hospitals and clinics. The category includes Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is a City-operated agency, and City contributions to NYC Health + Hospitals.

Public safety always gets a lot of attention from proposals to defund, redeploy, or increase headcount. This cycle is no exception so here’s reality. $10.11 of every $100 goes towards public safety and judicial system costs, covering all emergency response agencies, such as the New York Police Department, the Fire Department of New York, and New York City Emergency Management. This category includes City spending on items such as equipment, fuel, training, medical supplies, and more. In addition, all five District Attorneys, the Department of Probation, and oversight agencies, like the Civilian Complaint Review Board, are also included in this category.

For those whose greater concern is the liability side of the balance sheet, two concerns predominate. Debt service payments account for $5.66 out of $100. This budget category pays for the City’s borrowing to finance the Capital Budget. The City contributes to five pension systems that serve different groups of public employees: The New York Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS), the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), the Fire Pension Fund (FPF), and the Police Pension Fund (PPF). Together, these pension contributions cost $8.90 out of $100.

$1.28 out of $100 funds the transportation budget category, which includes activities like paving and maintaining streets, highways, bridges, tunnels, and public plazas, managing traffic lights and signals, operating the Staten Island Ferry and direct contributions to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

NOT OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER

We have been reporting on the long strange trip that the effort to enact transportation funding legislation in Oregon. After a number of hurdles were overcome, the final bill was finally passed this month. That doesn’t mean that the bill has been signed. That is where things get interesting.

Under Oregon law, citizens can refer bills passed by the Legislature to the ballot for voter approval as long as they can collect enough valid signatures within 90 days of the Legislature adjourning. A group has announced its intention to undertake such an effort. There is one holdup – the group can’t actually begin collecting signatures until the governor signs the bill. For the transportation tax bill, House Bill 3991, that doesn’t have to happen until 30 business days after lawmakers’ Oct. 1 adjournment.

So, the Governor is delaying actually signing the bill until the deadline to do so arrives. That would leave a bit over a month to garner the 78,116 signatures required by a Dec. 30 deadline. The details of a proposed ballot question have not been released but it would likely reference certain items in the bill. A six-cent gas tax increase, a temporary doubling of a payroll tax that funds transit, and hikes to vehicle registration fees are likely targets for those looking to get the issue on the ballot.

CHICAGO BUDGET

A social media tax, new yacht docking fees and a renewed employee surcharge lead the list of novel revenue sources Mayor Brandon Johnson is pushing in his 2026 budget to fill a $1.15 billion hole.  The $16.6 billion budget proposal introduced does not include hikes in property taxes, garbage fees and grocery taxes. The Mayor has included some new efforts to expand the tax base through new levies.

The Mayor proposes a “community safety surcharge” that taxes businesses with more than 100 workers $21 per month per employee, more than five times what it was under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who dissolved it in 2014. Head taxes as they are known have proven to be unpopular. Hence its elimination in 2014. One innovative proposal from Mayor would tax social media. He proposes that the tech companies pay 50 cents per Chicago user after the first 100,000 to fund and insulate mental health services from federal funding cuts.

The Mayor also announced that he’d would use $1 billion from unused money in special taxing districts. The plan would see of that amount being transferred half going to Chicago Public Schools to cover, among other things, required pension funding for CPS employees that was at the center of disputes between the City and   CPS that resulted into the firing of the school superintendent. In any event, the pension funding move is yet another one-time solution for a long-term problem.

PORT OF LOS ANGELES

The Port of Los Angeles processed 883,053 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in September. While cargo was lower in the month compared to last year, the Port still had its best quarter on record. September 2025 loaded imports came in at 460,044 TEUs, 7.6% less than last year. Loaded exports landed at 114,693 TEUs, about the same as 2024. The Port handled 308,317 empty container units, 10% less than last year.

 The Port closed out the third quarter moving 2.9 million TEUs, its best three-month quarter ever. Nine months into 2025, the Port of Los Angeles has handled 7,817,057 TEUs, 3% more than the same period in 2024. Nevertheless, uncertainty is the ruling feeling of the day as tariffs and ship fees begin to take effect. The Port points out that “Approximately 20% of vessels that call at the Port of Los Angeles are China-made. Some cargo-handling equipment and cranes are also manufactured in China.“ In addition to tariffs, the ship fees throw a real wrench into things.

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