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Controller Says Deep Muni Cuts Would Lower Home Values as Mayor Backs Parcel Tax

The draft report links a $307 million shortfall to route eliminations that would reduce job access, increase commute delays and trim citywide home prices.

Overview

  • The San Francisco Controller’s Office published a draft analysis Wednesday that models the effects of a roughly $307 million annual shortfall for the Municipal Transportation Agency.
  • Muni warns that without new funding it could eliminate 19 bus lines and a streetcar route and cut service frequency, which the report says would make transit less reliable and slower for riders.
  • The controller’s models estimate more than 15,000 weekday hours of added trip delays, an 8% drop in jobs reachable within a 45-minute transit commute, and up to a 0.9% fall in average city home prices.
  • Proposition H, a parcel tax on the Nov. 3 ballot that Mayor Daniel Lurie now supports, would charge homeowners about $129 a year for single-family units with higher rates for multiunit and commercial parcels and is projected to raise roughly $184 million annually.
  • The report finds that the parcel tax would have a much smaller negative effect on residential property values and could generate about $400 million in economic growth and roughly 1,400 new jobs over 15 years, while a separate regional transit sales tax was not evaluated and could change outcomes.