Rescue Muni

The SFMTA Board is expected to adopt next year’s budget, including deep service cuts, today.  Please show up and let them know how you feel.

Many budget solutions to prevent service cuts involve long-term cost controls and revenue measures; we’ve written about a number of those here.  In the short run, we think the most immediate solution to prevent budget cuts is to raise money through extended parking meter hours and higher parking meter rates.  Many cities with less of a transit orientation than San Francisco run their meters on weeknights and Sundays.

Right now, today, the choice the SFMTA Board faces is one between raising more money at parking meters and cutting Muni service.  Please show up at City Hall, Room 400, at 2:00 p.m., to let the board know which you prefer.  Even with the unexpected injection of funds from the state, Muni is looking at a deep service cut which will do grievous damage to the notion of San Francisco as a Transit First city.

Extending parking meter hours and bringing meter rates into line with garage rates isn’t the solution to all of Muni’s problems, but it’s the best solution to the dilemma we face today.  Please let the SFMTA Board know that.

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At last some good news from Sacramento (besides the frequent and comfortable Capitol Corridor service): Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed the bill to restore some state transportation funding, including aid to mass transit, from the sales tax on gasoline. This should allow Muni to restore some service cuts and delay others – $36 million is due immediately and another $31 million is expected for the next fiscal year.

While this removes some of the urgency for SFMTA fiscal reform, it does not solve the problem of its structural deficit. We continue to urge passage of the Elsbernd Amendment that would remove the Charter imposed wage floor for operators, allowing the SFMTA to bargain for wages and work rules with the TWU as they do with all other unions.

If Rescue Muni stands for anything, it stands for putting the interests of Muni riders first, ahead of ideological canards, ahead of entrenched interests, and ahead of the instincts of people—so numerous in this supposedly “progressive” city—who resist change just because change rubs them the wrong way. We believe our value is in our singular focus on making Muni better, a mission we follow wherever it leads, even when it annoys people on the right or the left, or anywhere in between. This, above all, is what Rescue Muni is for.

Right now, Muni operator pay is set by a formula: it can’t be any lower than the average of the two highest-paying transit systems in the US. Before Proposition A (2007), which we supported, the rule was it couldn’t be any higher than the average of the top two. The theory was that, by making it a floor instead of a ceiling, Muni could offer higher pay in exchange for less restrictive work rules. That was an interesting idea, but it didn’t work that way in the real world. Unions didn’t take the deal, and nothing changed – operators got higher pay by the formula, without any change in work rules.

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Concerned about the budget deficit and even further service cuts? Attend the SFMTA’s town hall meeting today at 6 pm at 1 South Van Ness or on Saturday, March 20 at 10 am. Nearby transit service includes Muni Metro (Van Ness station), F, 6, 47, 49, and 71. Tell the MTA to extend parking meter hours and address escalating costs before cutting service!

The SFMTA isn’t finished in it’s quest to close its upcoming $100m budget deficit. On the table is a $0.50 fee to transfer between transit vehicles, a move that would generate $7.5m per year. Another, more pricey option, is to eliminate transfers completely, which would generate $20m per year.

Update: The MTA Board rejected this proposal today.