Poll: Voters support new transit taxes, especially on Uber, Lyft

Passengers board an inbound L-Taraval Muni Metro streetcar from a street level boarding area at Taraval Street and 32nd Avenue in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. Passengers board an inbound L-Taraval Muni Metro streetcar from a street level boarding area at Taraval Street and 32nd Avenue in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 58 Caption Close Poll: Voters support new transit taxes, especially on Uber, Lyft 1 / 58 Back to Gallery

A majority of San Franciscans want improvements to the city’s roads and Muni system — and they think businesses, including Uber, Lyft and food-delivery services, should pay for them, according to a survey by the San Francisco Transportation Authority.

The poll is part of an effort to figure out how to pay for an estimated $22 billion in transit and street improvements, which a mayoral transportation task force says are needed between now and 2045.

Pollsters Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates of Oakland conducted the survey of 1,013 registered San Francisco voters considered likely to cast ballots next November. The survey was taken Dec. 1-7 by phone and online. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

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The survey, highlights of which were given to the Transportation Authority on Tuesday, found that most San Franciscans — 70 percent — believe the city needs to repair its roads, beef up Muni service, help improve Caltrain and BART service, and make bicycling and walking safer and more convenient.

When it comes to paying, those polled were asked if they would support increasing the sales tax, business taxes on commercial rents, the vehicle license fee and imposing a new tax on companies like online ride-hailing and food delivery services.

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After pollsters presented arguments for and against each revenue source, a tax on commercial rents and a tax on Uber, Lyft and other “gig economy” companies emerged as favorites, with 65 percent and 59 percent support of those polled, respectively. Support for a vehicle license fee boost came in at 49 percent and backing for a half-cent sales tax increase was 37 percent.

All of those likely would require a two-thirds majority of votes to pass. Sunny Angulo, chief of staff for Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who is the chairman of the Transportation Authority, has been working with the transportation task force. She considers the poll results promising.

“When people hear the facts, they’re likely to support (the taxes),” she said.

Jim Lazarus, policy director for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said 2018 is the wrong time to consider the business tax being proposed since the city is in the midst of changing how it taxes businesses.

“Like lots of things in life, especially taxes, it’s complicated,” he said.

The mayoral transportation task force is studying how to raise funds for transportation after voters soundly turned down a three-quarter-of-a-cent sales tax increase in November 2016.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan