Chron complains of “brinkmanship” re MTA budget, but BoS should reject it
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.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:15 am
[...] hearing on May 27 to reconsider the motion to reject. Seven votes are needed to reject the budget (as we and others advocated last week); last time the motion failed by one vote. Supervisor Avalos and others have been urging rejection [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
[...] failed, with only five Supervisors (Avalos, Campos, Daly, Mar, and Mirkarimi) voting to reject. (We had urged rejection due to the inflated work orders causing excessive service [...]