SacRT offered a presentation on the results public outreach (the Transit Ideas Exchanges) and he transportation sales tax voter polling at the October 27 board meeting. The staff report and extensive presentation are available. The presentation was by Devra Selenis of SacRT and Cherri Spriggs of Meraki Public Affairs.

Sacramento Transportation Authority will have a presentation of the poll results at the November board meeting, Thursday, November 13, 1:30 PM. Agenda not posted yet. The presentation will be by FM3, the company that conducted the polling. STA intends to continue consideration of a measure for 2028. Their legislation to allow a portion of the county rather than the entire county, passed and was signed by the governor, but STA is far from deciding whether a whole-county measure or a select cities measure would be most appropriate and successful.

The upshot of polling is that there is no chance of an agency-sponsored county-wide transportation sales tax passing in 2026. Agency-sponsored measures require a 2/3 vote to pass.

As mentioned previously, there is a preliminary effort underway to develop a citizen initiative for just the City of Sacramento. It might be about half for fixing roads and sidewalks, and about half for transit operations. Everyone understands that the funding for signature gathering and then promotion of the initiative has not be identified, and will be a challenge. Citizen’s initiatives require only 50% + 1 to pass, and this might be achievable. The poll results seem to indicate a chance of success.

More to come!