Every day seems to bring a new level of frustration to BART riders: Train breakdowns caused by mysterious power spikes. Bus bridges. $1,000 surprise employee bonuses. Phony and disabled security cameras. It’s been one aggravating issue after another, leading to a growing migraine for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters who rely on this critical public transit system to get to work, go to school, or make important meetings.

BART failed to shore up its system while signs of operational and financial problems were becoming visible miles down the track. BART’s own financial projection tags the system with a $9.6 billion capital deficit for critical track, station, train and technology repairs and upgrades.

Despite these foreseen budget shortfalls, BART approved a labor contract that gave outsized pay raises (15.4 percent over four years) to workers and managers, who already make among the highest transit compensation in the nation. On top of that, a little-noticed $1,000 bonus tied to ridership increases was added to their Christmas stockings last year and is expected to be paid again this year. More than 3,300 employees were rewarded — for doing their job.

Now BART wants Bay Area taxpayers to fork over billions of dollars in property and sales tax increases to shore up the crumbling, overcrowded system. The BART board soon will consider placing a $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot in Contra Costa, Alameda and San Francisco counties to reinvest in rail, tunnels and technology.

Beyond that, the Contra Costa Transit Authority also is hoping to put a measure before Contra Costa County taxpayers in November to raise sales taxes to yield an additional $300 million to pay for the new rail cars. Its allocation would be contingent on San Francisco and Alameda counties matching that amount.

In short, BART believes that we should reward its bad behavior with more taxes.

I have been joined by 38 Bay Area elected officials in urging BART to take concrete steps to restore trust in their leadership prior to a new vote on taxes.

These mayors, councilmembers, supervisors and state leaders have laid down a simple requirement: Negotiate a new labor contract that is financially responsible and bars strikes by public transit unions before the November election — so BART will have a contract in place when the current one expires next year. That would give all of us confidence that the trains will continue to run for at least the next five years.

Let’s take a moment to revisit the last contract breakdown in 2013. The three unions representing BART workers walked off the job twice in 2013 after six months of bargaining, complaining that management refused to negotiate in good faith. It resulted in eight days of strikes, and numerous other days when Bay Area commuters went to bed not knowing if trains were going to be running for their morning commute. It was a nightmare of congested freeways, plus financial and personal hardship to workers, students, consumers and patients.

The BART board didn’t just cave on high salaries to unions. They also gave the same high raises to their management, who presided over this debacle. They also tied the hands of the next BART board by agreeing not to train replacement workers in anticipation of a future strike. And finally, they also slipped in the special bonus provisions to hide the fact that compensation was going to be even higher than was apparent.

Conveniently, that 2013 contract expires about eight months after this year’s election. There are many BART riders and taxpayers who will not be fooled again by hollow promises from BART management that they should be trusted to act responsibly on compensation matters. BART says it’s mixing apples and oranges to criticize operating costs such as salaries and benefits when talking about a multibillion-dollar bond for capital expenses. But that’s ludicrous: It all comes out of the same taxpayer pocket.

There are many people who feel that the best way to restore balance to BART is to ban transit strikes just as New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco have done. The politicians in those cities realized that when you build your cities around an efficient transit system, the price is too high to have a work stoppage. So far, support for a similar remedy has not come from our Legislature. That’s why your vote on taxes is our only way to hold BART accountable.

Standing up for riders, commuters and taxpayers is about creating a balanced system that provides fair wages, affordable fares and retains consumer trust.

But if the trust is not there, funding for much-needed improvements for this transit system will be stopped dead in its tracks, and it won’t take a BART mechanic to figure out the cause of the next power spike. BART — management and unions — will just have to look in the mirror.

Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda, represents Contra Costa and portions of Alameda counties in the state Senate. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at www.sfgate.com/submissions.