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Committee clears Tax Bond Measures for Transbay project after controller denies bond proceeds would fund repairs
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee voted to send ordinances authorizing up to $200 million in Transbay Community Facilities District bond proceeds to the full Board after the Controller's office affirmed proceeds will fund approved project costs and interim financing, not repairs to cracked steel beams.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Budget & Finance Committee voted to send two measures to the full Board that would authorize up to $200 million in special tax bonds for the Transbay Transit Center and related plant infrastructure.
Chair Malia Cohen introduced the paired ordinance and resolution, and asked the Controller's office whether bond proceeds could be used to fix recently identified construction defects at the Transit Center. Anna Van Degnam, director in the Controller's Office of Public Finance, told the committee: "Upon further due diligence, we can affirmatively state that they will not." She said the issuance would fund already‑approved project costs and pay down the city's interim financing.
Van Degnam reviewed the project funding table and said the CFD bond proceeds were distinct from the city's interim COP financing approved in 2016. The issuance before the committee would add approximately $105 million in CFD proceeds to a prior issuance that funded about $149 million. The comptroller's slide deck also showed a total approved project cost of $2,259,000,000.
Budget Analyst Deborah Campbell told the committee that roughly $29 million of the requested appropriation would be directed to street projects administered by Public Works and recommended approval. With those assurances, Chair Cohen moved to send the items to the full Board with a positive recommendation; the motion carried without objection.
The measures will appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda and, if passed and signed, allow staff to move forward with the CFD bond issuance and related financing steps.
What's next: If approved by the Board and signed by the mayor, the ordinance becomes effective 30 days later and the City Attorney's and Controller's offices and bond counsel would implement the issuance schedule and closing steps.
