BAHFA’s own calculations show:

TOTAL DEBT SERVICE : $48,281,750,400 (includes interest payments)

BONDS ISSUANCE AMOUNT:  $20,000,000,000

RESPONSIBLE COUNTIES: 9

BOND DURATION: 53 YEARS

INITIAL FISCAL YEAR OF COLLECTION: 2024-2025

FINAL FISCAL YEAR OF COLLECTION: 2077-2078

HIGHEST RATE: $34.20 per $100,000 of assessed valuation

AVG RATE:  $18.98 per $100,000 of assessed valuation

This could cost you more than $40,000!

In November, Vote NO on the largest, most expensive regional housing bond in U.S. history – Vote NO on Regional Measure 4.  The $20 BILLION of BONDS that will cost over $48 BILLION, including interest, is being requested by the BAY AREA HOUSING FINANCE AUTHORITY (“BAHFA”). This bloated bureaucracy was created in 2019, with no history of expertise in housing, and it wants to spend your money as its pilot project.

BAHFA is one of the many faces of the METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT COMMISSION (‘MTC”), uses the same San Francisco facilities and has the same non-elected officer. But it has neither built nor financed a single house or apartment building.

Regional Measure 4 will be on the November 5, 2024, ballot for five million voters in the nine counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The TOTAL vote of all nine counties will determine whether the BAHFA bond passes. So it is possible that every voter in your county could vote against it and yet the combined votes of two larger counties — who would get the most benefit — could impose the BAHFA bond on you. No county can “opt out.”  EVERY ‘NO’ VOTE MATTERS.

County governments in the nine Bay Area counties want to INCREASE the cost of your housing by raising property taxes – taxes that will last up to 53 years and may cost you $40,000 or more.  In November, they will ask you to vote for $20,000,000,000 of new bonds with new, additional property taxes. The real cost is estimated to be $48,281,750,400 with interest.

Called Regional Measure 4 (“RM4”), they falsely claim it will build “affordable housing,” but it will make your housing less affordable! There are no exemptions for seniors, the disabled, or veterans. The tax isn’t limited by Prop. 13. 

Renters will pay more, too, through increased rent. Falsely-promised tenant protections are an illusion and cannot be funded with these bonds under California law. In the fine print, those proposing the bonds admit “allocation(s) for Tenant Protections may be … redistributed [elsewhere].”