313 million more collected in one year! Is your wallet okay with five major tax increase cases?

South Bay voters will head to Election Day 2026 on the 3rd. Several key issues in Santa Clara County will be decided by voters, including a regional sales tax, which is expected to raise about 313 million yuan each year for Bay Area public transportation, as well as plans for the Palo Alto, Mountain View, Gillo andMilbida four places in the cityTax remedy. In addition, Cupertino and Los Alto have proposed referendums on land use and municipal land management.San Jose The second round of elections will be held for city councilors in the fifth, seventh and ninth wards also.

According to the South Bay Chronicle, one of the most high-profile proposals this election is the regional transportation sales tax issue, Measure RTM. If the bill is passed, Santa Clara County would add an additional 0.5% sales tax on each taxable purchase, which is expected to be implemented for a period of 14 years beginning April 1, 2027. The San Jose city government estimates that the tax could raise approximately 313 million yuan each year in Santa Clara County. In terms of the 2026 currency, it needs just over half of the votes to pass.

According to state law, approximately 84.37% of transportation tax revenues raised by Santa Clara County, or approximately $264 million per year, will be allocated to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) for public transportation and partial road maintenance; 10. 38%, about $32.5 million, is allocated to Caltrain for operating and capital expenditures; Another 5%, approximately $15.7 million, is used for regional transportation transformation planning, and 0.25%, approximately $783,500, is used for administrative management.

In addition to the regional transportation tax, the four cities have also proposed local tax measures, which are expected to increase total revenue by about 24.5 million yuan per year, and only need a majority of votes to pass.

Bailo Alto Measure J proposes to increase the sales tax by 0.5%, which is expected to increase revenues by approximately $15.6 million per year, and would be implemented beginning in April 2027. The City Council has previously passed relevant guidelines and a plan to purchase approximately seven acres of land at the Cubberley Community Center from the Palo Alto Unified School District and use part of the revenue to perform site renovations. Opponents questioned whether the measure was actually used to finance the approximately $65.5 million in land acquisition costs.

Mountain View’s Measure F proposes to increase the current 10% hotel tax to a maximum of 15%. The city estimates that the tax rate increase will increase revenue by approximately 5.2 million yuan per year. Measure B first proposes increasing the hotel tax from 9% to 11%, which is expected to raise about $700,000 per year. The City Council may increase the tax rate to 13% in the future without another referendum.

Measure K would reform the business tax system enacted in 1976, eliminating the original calculation method based on the number of employees and replacing it with a fixed fee of 25 yuan to 400 yuan per year. Enterprises with annual operating income of more than 700,000 yuan will also have to pay a surcharge of 0.025% to 0.035% at the higher level, which is expected to increase the city’s revenue by about 3 million yuan each year.

In San Jose, there is no municipal referendum this time, but there will be runoff elections for city councilors in the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Wards.