Revenue and Taxation Committee advances transit funding, energy and veterans tax measures; several bills referred to suspense

The Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation on the floor advanced a slate of tax and revenue bills after public testimony and referred several items to the committee’s suspense file for later consideration.

Committee members voted to move several measures to the Appropriations Committee and held or made others two-year bills. Major items included SB 63, an authorizing bill that would allow Bay Area counties to place a 10- to 15-year local sales tax measure on the November 2026 ballot to shore up BART, Caltrain, Muni and AC Transit; SB 86, to reauthorize and expand the state’s sales-and-use tax exclusion program for clean-energy and advanced manufacturing projects; SB 711, an omnibus conformity bill updating California’s tax code to federal law as of Jan. 1, 2025; SB 328, which would cap certain Department of Toxic Substances Control monitoring fees charged to housing developers; SB 302, aligning state tax treatment with federal Inflation Reduction Act transferability rules for clean-energy tax credits; and two bills proposing expanded property-tax exemptions for disabled veterans (SB 56 and SB 296).

Why it matters: Committee members and dozens of witnesses told the panel the measures affect housing, public transit, jobs, clean-energy investment and veterans’ housing stability. Several bills carry fiscal impacts that the committee signaled need further review before final approval. The committee followed its rules on fiscal-impact bills by referring several items to the suspense file for additional consideration.

What the committee did and why

SB 63 (Wiener) — regional transit funding

SB 63 would authorize Bay Area counties to place a 10- to 15-year local sales tax measure on the November 2026 ballot to create a regional funding source for major transit agencies that the bill and witnesses said face persistent operating shortfalls. Robert Rayburn, a member of the BART Board of Directors, told the committee, “BART is working to reduce costs and closed a $35,000,000 deficit for fiscal year 26. However, we cannot cut our way out of this crisis, and we will face a $350,000,000 plus deficit starting in fiscal year 27.” Sue Nowak, mayor of Pleasant Hill and chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the measure does not itself impose a tax but “simply gives the Bay Area permission to ask its voters whether they wanna invest in their own future.”

Oppositio…