Rescue Muni

If you’re concerned about the proposed MTA service cuts due to the budget crisis, plan to attend one of two hearings this week. The SFMTA is holding a hearing on the cuts on Tuesday, April 7, unfortunately during the Giants’ Opening Day – but there is a meeting scheduled two weeks later, on April 21, when you can also submit comments.

As or more important is a hearing at the Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee, on Wednesday, April 8 at 1:30 pm. At this meeting the Supervisors will be asking city officials about the suspiciously large work orders submitted by various city departments to the SFMTA, including a huge increase from SFPD, this fiscal year. (When did you last see a cop ride a Muni bus, or pull over a bus lane violator? Comment on that at this meeting.) One of the major causes of service cuts is this $28 million per year increase in other-department work orders, which has almost completely consumed the increase in funding passed by the voters in Proposition A (2007). If you don’t think Muni is getting good value for the millions of additional dollars being billed it by SFPD and other departments, speak out at the meeting!

Update: The Examiner has a good summary of possible cuts.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 8:37 am and is filed under Budget, MTA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.