Transportation dollars halted
By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
February 20, 2009
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| (Examiner file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The state budget deals a wallop to local transportation agencies — and it’s likely to hit you straight in the pocketbook.
Increased fares and service cuts are likely on the horizon for local transit agencies after state funding, which was trimmed back this year, will be axed in 2010.
The state budget, which was approved by the Legislature on Thursday, slashed $61 million in funding originally allotted for Bay Area transportation agencies, including a combined $36 million reduction in transit assistance funds for BART and Muni.
The news only gets worse for the 2010 fiscal year, when transit assistance funds — which topped $700 million in 2008 — are expected to be discontinued completely. The funding comes from a portion of the state’s fuel taxes and is supposed to be dedicated to transportation agencies.
Among Bay Area providers, Muni will be hit hardest. The Municipal Transportation Agency will lose $68 million in funding in the next two years — including $25 million this year — a loss that is contributing greatly to the transit agency’s two-year, $100 million projected deficit.
Muni spokesman Judson True said the transit agency was preparing for the sour news for months and is working on ways to alter its budget in the absence of state funding.
It will investigate the possibility of service reductions to deal with the deficit, True said, but there are no immediate plans to increase fares, other than a $10 increase to monthly Fast Pass prices, which was approved last year by the board of directors.
BART — a transit agency that relies heavily on regional tax funding and is struggling with the dwindling economy — will lose more than $15 million in state funding this year, accounting for more than half of this year’s $34 million budget deficit, according spokesman Linton Johnson.
“Losing this funding is the equivalent of us leaving the fare gate open every weekday for nearly a month,” he said.
BART is already mulling a number of measures to deal with its current deficit, including raising parking fees by $1 at some stations, reducing service intervals on trains from 15 to 20 minutes and extending its current hiring freeze. One proposal also calls for increasing ticket fares by as much as 10 percent.
Caltrain and SamTrans, which both recently increased fares by 25 cents, will likely have to consider another raise to ticket prices, or reduce service, because of the state cuts, according to Christine Dunn, spokeswoman for both transit agencies.
The loss of funding is particularly troublesome because it goes toward immediate operating costs, said Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional agency.
“At some point, operators are going to have to reduce service or increase fares to make the system work,” he said. “There aren’t really any other options.”
