Rescue Muni

As part of the continuing budget debate about the MTA, Supervisor Dufty is urging Muni to raise fines for fare evasion to $75 from the current $50, and more importantly raise fines for repeat offenses to $500 for a third offense.

Although this won’t close the budget gap on its own, this is a much needed proposal. Fare evasion is a serious problem on Muni, particularly on many bus lines where riders board via the back door with impunity. With fares going up to $2 soon, fare paying riders deserve to know that everyone is paying his or her fair share. If this is done, MTA needs to post signs reminding riders of the $500 maximum fine – as is done for red light photo enforcement and carpool lanes.

Perhaps littering on the bus should also have a $500 maximum fine?

The Supervisors yesterday declined to reject the MTA budget after a deal was struck with MTA director Nat Ford to make $10 million in budget cuts, including only $2.8 million in cuts to work orders (out of $63 million – read down to 6:41 PM in SF Appeal’s live blog) to other city departments, in an attempt to avoid further cuts in service. Among the cuts was a decision to delay hiring of parking control officers and fare inspectors, which is likely to cause more service delays and could reduce parking revenue.

No details yet on which work orders will be reduced, though riders who have recently seen cops on the buses should now expect them to disappear, now that SFPD is keeping the majority (or all?) of its inflated allocation and isn’t making a show of cooperating with the MTA. There does not appear to have been a decision to move control of the traffic division to MTA, as was previously proposed.

Fares will still go up as scheduled, except for Lifeline Pass users.

Update: The Budget Committee voted to send the motion to reject the budget back to the full board. At the moment the motion doesn’t have the votes, so the budget is likely to stand.

The Chronicle today editorialized against the Supervisors rejecting the MTA budget, claiming that the supervisors would cause “political gridlock” by exercising their power to reject a budget that we and others have raised serious concerns about, specifically concerning the inflated work orders to other departments that have more than wiped out the increased funding promised to the MTA by Proposition A (2007).

But it’s not “gridlock” to demand that MTA take a strong negotiating position with the city. If the work orders aren’t reduced to a more reasonable amount, in line with inflation from last year and the actual value the MTA gets from other city departments, the Supervisors should reject the budget. Once it’s rejected, the MTA should look again at parking fees (e.g. Sunday meters) and reduced work order amounts to avoid some of the service cuts that are currently being discussed.

Muni’s not the only regional transit system facing a fiscal emergency due to the economy. Caltrain (run by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board) is also facing deep cuts in funding and is considering various options to address its $10M deficit, including possibly cancelling service on weekends. This isn’t likely to be approved, nor should it be – thousands of SF and regional riders count on Caltrain during “non-commute” hours to get to work, shopping, and entertainment, and the loss of weekend service would mean a huge inconvenience for these riders. (The Giants might have something to say about this too.) Fare increases are also on the table, as is a proposed $1 fee for bike commuters.

Public hearings are scheduled for Wednesday, June 4, at 10 am, at Caltrain headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Ave, San Carlos (near the San Carlos train station).

After a long public hearing yesterday, Supervisor Chiu signed up six co-sponsors for his resolution to reject the proposed MTA budget, something that requires 7 votes under Proposition A (2007). This was in response to the very high cost of “work orders” from the MTA to other city departments, which is contributing to major cuts in service and a proposed $2 cash fare, as well as increased parking fees citywide.

If the BoS rejects the budget, we urge the MTA to follow our recommendations for a revised version that spends less on wasteful work orders and also minimizes service cuts. In particular, consolidating stops (often two to a block today!) citywide and converting Locals to Limiteds will allow MTA to provide faster service to more riders for a lower cost.