Comments on: Tweets from April 7 SMFTA Budget Hearing

By: In Search of a Stable Equilibrium « Transbay Blog

In Search of a Stable Equilibrium « Transbay Blog — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:47:28 +0000

[...] of the barrel, so to speak, in search of replacement money for operations; this has resulted in controversial proposals to raise fares while trimming service. But if there is any silver lining to be found here, [...]

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:03:58 +0000

The work order nonsense is outrageous. I think much of the heat around that issue is getting lost in an Arthur-Andersonesque shuffle of numbers. But as I learned way back in my basic college physics class, you just need to look at the initial state of a system and the final state of a system.

It may confuse some when people invoke claims that these are ‘Muni-related’ expenses, but we can ignore that argument as irrelevant. City government has a $500M+ deficit, who is making up that deficit? Through whatever inter-departmental actions, it’s Muni that is bearing the burden of that shortfall.

If 311 is supposed to be a one-stop shop for all city services, they cannot charge Muni for transit-related calls. They are not ferrying passengers, they are providing non-emergency information. That’s a 311-related call not a Muni-related call.

And how foes DOH justify charging muni for treating injuries where a bus was involved? Would they like Muni to charge them for the cost of getting half their patients to General on the 9?

Thus balkanization of city services is a reductio ad absurdum. If these agencies want a chunk of Muni’s independent budget, they need to either go back to the ballot and put it back in the General Fund, or they need to sue. Muni ought not to roll over on this!

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:44:11 +0000

Yes, Jarrett, that is a big piece of the puzzle (this post has some numbers about money lost this fiscal year, and then STA funds are eliminated thereafter). The lack of STA funds will burden agencies throughout the Bay Area and the whole state. Muni also has the peculiar problem of other City departments sending them their bills and raiding money that voters indicated should be used to improve transit, which was the topic of a Board committee meeting yesterday. It's indeed sad that transit operators are being put in this bind just as interest in transit is increasing nationwide, and it's a shame we don't have any federal stimulus money that could be used to offset some of these deficits.

By: Jarrett Mullen

Jarrett Mullen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:42:56 +0000

This is very sad and I don’t even live in San Francisco. I’m sure it will come into the South Bay soon enough though. The budget shortfalls from BART, MUNI, VTA, etc. are largely due to the elimination of state funding right?

By: Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines

Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:04:44 +0000

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