The tax on rideshares that was supposed to help dig Muni out of its deficit is cruising to a big win, but will probably never take effect, because it conflicts with the Prop M business tax measure which is winning by even more.

The morning after the November 5 election when we were reporting the results on local SF ballot measures, we noted that the Prop L tax on rideshares to fund Muni was on its way to a big win by a 56%-44% margin. With tens of thousands more votes counted in the Friday afternoon update, Prop L has even increased that eight-percentage point lead.

So it seems like indeed Uber, Lyft, and robotaxi companies will be taxed to help Muni out of its $214 million deficit and possible service cuts, right?

Not so fast, rideshare tax. The even larger victory for the seemingly unrelated Prop M business tax reform measure will cancel out Prop L if it gets more votes, according to SFGate. And right now, Prop M has nearly 22,000 more votes, though some 117,000 votes remain to be counted.

While the two propositions would appear to have very little to do with one another, both involve making changes to the city’s gross receipts tax system. And the SF Department of Elections was quite clear in the legislative text of Prop M that “If Proposition M passes with more votes than Proposition L, then Proposition L would have no legal effect.”

As of the current totals, Prop M is passing with 170,572 votes. Prop L is passing too, but only with 148,640 votes. So it’s looking like Prop M for the win on this one, with Prop L unable to keep up, despite its majority win.

Prop L advocates are not giving up. “We do think that we’ll likely run stronger in the ballots that are remaining, so we want to see how that looks before calling anything,” Yes on L campaign manager Cyrus Hall told the Examiner. (Those remarks were made before Friday afternoon’s vote update, in which Prop M grew its victory margin over Prop L.)

As of Friday's update, Prop M has 170,572 votes (69.7%), and Prop L has 148,640 (56.6%).

Note: This post has been updated with the updated Friday, November 8 vote results.

Related: Early Results Have Car-Free Great Highway Ahead, Prop D Commission Reform Losing [SFist]

Image: @sftransitact via Twitter