BART's $2.02 billion FY27 budget leans on one-time fixes

On June 1, 2026, BART's Board of Directors adopted a $2,019,054,059 budget for FY27⧉ — $1.19 billion operating, $828 million capital — closing a $375 million structural operating deficit largely through one-time measures rather than new recurring revenue.▸ The Pension Funding Policy and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Policy both receive $0 in budgeted allocations for the year. The operating budget also books $74.4 million from a regional sales-tax measure that Bay Area voters will not decide until the November 2026 ballot — a measure MTC's own fact sheet⧉ estimates would eventually send BART $310 million a year, about 83 percent of the deficit BART cites, if it passes.

The FY27 Sources and Uses exhibit⧉ puts BART's total FY27 fund sources and uses at $2,019,054,059 — $1,191,042,241 operating and $828,011,818 capital — a balanced budget by construction, since sources equal uses by definition.▸ Getting there required closing what BART's board resolution⧉ calls a $375 million structural operating deficit, driven by ridership that has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Staff's fix combines ongoing revenue increases and expense reductions with several one-time moves: a sales-tax basis accounting change, a deferral of operating funds to support capital work, and new short-term borrowing.

Of the $1.19 billion operating budget, $386.7 million comes from fares, parking, and investment income⧉ and $663.5 million from sales tax, property tax, and state and regional financial assistance.▸ The rest, $140.9 million, comes from a carry-forward of unused SB 125 funds and new borrowing. Inside the financial-assistance total sits $74.4 million booked as "Regional Sales Tax" revenue — BART's assumption that a still-undecided ballot measure passes and starts generating money around April 1, 2027, roughly nine months into the fiscal year.

The board resolution states plainly that the FY27 budget suspends operating-budget commitments to three of BART's own funding policies: the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Policy (adopted 2017), the Pension Funding Policy (adopted 2019, which sets aside funds to pay down pension liability), and the Art in Transit Policy (revised 2018).▸ The Sources and Uses exhibit⧉ confirms it in the numbers: the Allocation - Pension and Allocation - Sustainability from LCFS lines are both budgeted at exactly $0. Separately, the budget reduces retiree medical contributions by $33.8 million, moving those dollars into the allocations section of the ledger instead.

The $74.4 million BART books for FY27 is one year's partial slice of a much larger mechanism.▸ SB 63, the Connect Bay Area Act⧉, authorizes a 14-year regional sales tax — 0.5 percent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, 1 percent in San Francisco — on the November 2026 ballot, estimated to raise about $980 million a year across the five counties. MTC's own FY2028 estimate allocates BART $310 million of that annually under "Preserving Transit Service," about 32 percent of the regional total and roughly 83 percent of the $375 million structural deficit BART cites for FY27. The two figures sit on different fiscal-year bases and collection would not begin until around April 2027 even if voters approve the measure — so the comparison is a scale reference, not a claim that the measure erases the deficit outright. BART's own budget narrative distinguishes this funding bet from its separate Alternative Service Plan, a contingency document the board approved in February 2026 for a scenario where the money doesn't materialize.

Labor and benefits account for $803,651,684 of the FY27 operating budget — about 67.5 percent of total operating uses — and rose $9.4 million from the preliminary budget.▸ The increase funds previously negotiated wage increases of 2 percent on July 1, 2026, and another 2 percent on January 1, 2027, across AFSCME, ATU, SEIU, non-represented, and BPOA/BPMA employees, while the same budget eliminates funding for 63 vacant operating positions and assumes a 5 percent operating vacancy rate. BART's pay-band schedule⧉ tops out at $428,374 for the highest management band; the General Manager's board-set base salary is $475,303.