Res­i­dents of the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area say they want the wealth­i­est res­i­dents and com­pa­nies to pay for bet­ter pub­lic tran­sit in the region, reports Ethan Baron in The Mer­cury News.

A poll tak­en in the region found that “Near­ly six out of 10 poll respon­dents said they would sup­port hold­ing a future Bay Area-wide bal­lot mea­sure that would hike income tax on high earn­ers to pay for an afford­able, coor­di­nat­ed net­work of bus, rail and fer­ry lines, and improved roads and pedes­tri­an and cycling infra­struc­ture.”

Respon­dents indi­cat­ed they would sup­port boost­ing tran­sit fund­ing through a 1 per­cent tax on peo­ple mak­ing more than $300,000 a year and high­er pay­roll tax­es on employ­ers with over $4 mil­lion in annu­al rev­enue.  How­ev­er, “near­ly half of all respon­dents want­ed local offi­cials to focus on improv­ing roads and high­ways, while just under 40% want­ed a focus on bet­ter tran­sit.” Vot­ers also ‘strong­ly reject­ed’ increas­ing sales or prop­er­ty tax­es to fund trans­porta­tion.

A pro­posed bill, SB 925, would allow the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Trans­porta­tion Com­mis­sion to pro­pose fund­ing via a region­al bal­lot mea­sure. “The agency would like to see the fund­ing mea­sure raise $1 bil­lion to $2 bil­lion annu­al­ly through meth­ods that could include a sales tax, an income tax, a pay­roll tax, a par­cel tax, a vehi­cle reg­is­tra­tion sur­charge or a region­al vehi­cle-miles trav­eled charge.”