BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A lawyer has accused a Bay Area housing agency of misleading voters on a regional bond measure, prompting the agency to consider revising the ballot question with a more expensive price tag.
Attorney Jason Bezis sent a letter to the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority on Aug. 2, saying the agency understated how much money would be raised by the $20 billion bond.
The ballot question says the bond would raise $670 million for housing each year, when the correct number is $911 million, Bezis said. Attorney Kathleen Kane, representing the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, said she agrees with his calculations.
Kane is recommending the agency update the ballot language with the accurate number — 36% higher than what’s currently slated for the November ballot.
Bezis brought up 10 other issues with the ballot language and threatened to sue the agency if the measure isn’t revised.
An executive committee for the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, which was created in 2019 to oversee the measure and distribute funds to nine counties, will meet this morning in San Francisco to consider changing the dollar amount. The board will also discuss the lawsuit threat behind closed doors.
The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority is technically its own agency created by the state in 2019, but the board is one and the same as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which is considering a transportation measure in 2026.
The board is made up of locally elected officials from around the Bay Area. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa are on the committee that will vote today.
The housing agency unanimously approved the measure on June 26, despite polling data showing that 54% of respondents in a poll would approve the measure.
This bond requires two-thirds approval to pass, but officials are hoping that another statewide ballot measure passes in November that would lower the threshold to 55%.
The measure would increase property tax by about $19 per $100,000 of assessed value, or around $760 a year for a home with an assessed value of $4 million.
Supporters say a $20 billion bond measure would pay for the construction or preservation of 72,000 affordable homes in the nine-county Bay Area over the next 15 years. That’s double the number of homes built or preserved without the bond, the housing agency said.
The total cost of the bond is an estimated $48 billion, paid off by 2078, according to the tax rate statement in the voter guide.
