Prop K Sales Tax Program Sunsets, Preparing for the Next Era of Prop L Investments

The Transportation Authority has invested over $2 billion in Proposition K sales tax funds since 2004, supporting improvement projects large and small citywide. Every dollar of sales tax invested in San Francisco leverages four to seven times that amount in federal, state, and other funds — multiplying local dollars several times over.

Thanks to voters last year, San Francisco renewed its sales tax program with Proposition L, which will direct $2.6 billion in half-cent sales tax funds over the next 30 years to help deliver safer, smoother streets, more reliable transit, continue paratransit services for seniors and persons with disabilities, reduce congestion, and improve air quality.

The sales tax has supported numerous projects since 2004, including:

• Major capital projects such as the Presidio Parkway, Central Subway, Salesforce Transit Center, Caltrain Downtown Extension, Caltrain Electrification, and Van Ness Improvement Project. 
• Paratransit operations for seniors and persons with disabilities
• Vision Zero safety projects including Safe Routes to School, traffic calming, and bicycle safety and pedestrian safety improvements, and new and upgraded traffic signals
• Transit projects which have both systemwide and citywide benefits, including new transit vehicles, maintenance facility upgrades, track rehabilitation, cable car infrastructure rehabilitation, radio replacement, central control and communications programs
• Neighborhood-level projects which include speed humps, new pedestrian signals, bike facilities, red transit lanes, bike parking, curb ramps and sidewalk repair.
   

Learn more about what Proposition K has helped fund in our Sales Tax Stories.

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At their March 21 meeting, the Transportation Authority Board approved over $33 million to fund 27 requests for improvements throughout the city, closing out the Prop K program. 

Among the projects receiving funds was the Downtown Rail Extension, the most significant set of interrelated rail projects under development in the city. This 1.3 mile rail extension will increase Caltrain and future California high-speed rail service from the existing 4th and King railyard to the Salesforce Transit Center and also construct a new underground station at 4th and Townsend streets. 

What’s on the Horizon For Proposition L? 

The Transportation Authority is now focusing on implementing the new Prop L sales tax program. The process will maintain a focus on equity and transparency, which guided the plan's development. The Prop L sales tax will continue to invest in essential programs like transit maintenance, paratransit service, street resurfacing and safety improvements, and transit reliability improvements. 

The Prop L program will also bring new benefits to San Franciscans:

• More planning and community engagement through the Equity Priority Transportation Program, for local and citywide equity plans and assessments to help establish project priorities and attract matching funds, and the Transformative Freeway and Major Streets program, specifically for early planning and community engagement for projects that reimagine existing highway infrastructure.
• New types of investments through expanded eligibility, allowing the Transportation Authority Board to fund Vision Zero-related outreach and education, pilots and projects to address climate change such as electric vehicle charging infrastructure and new solutions or technologies for first-last mile connections to transit.
• Stronger focus on projects that benefit and are supported by disadvantaged populations.
• Increased oversight through new guidelines for project delivery of major capital projects.

We are starting the process now to develop the 5-year project lists to guide implementation of Proposition L. For more information, please visit the project page.