Bay Area’s Transit wants more money but salaries have grown

From And WaltersCalmness

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck five years ago, the state forced countless businesses to close and Told millions of workers in California to stay homeS

Redious interference with normality had many financial, social and political impacts. One was to reduce the revenue from riding and tariffs for public transit systems, especially in the San Francisco Bay area.

The 27 Bay Area transit systems received $ 4.5 billion, $ 5.1 billion in a one -time state budget and some current state aid to deal with pandemic impacts. However, they say they are still injuring, with the accumulated operating losses of several hundred million dollars from 2020 and they will encounter what they call a “fiscal rock” in 2026, which will cause a reduction in services.

A tense campaign was installed to get more state aid and to persuade the bay voters to pay more taxes. However, if nothing else, state support may decrease.

California Transit Association, in a letter to legislative leaders, requested $ 1.1 billion In one -off funds and an additional $ 1.6 billion per year continuous financing.

However, The revised state budget of governor Gavin Newsom It interrupts the transit support from the State Program for Cap and Trade for the sale of greenhouse gas emissions.

NEWSOM’s omission angered transit supporters and they persuade legislative leaders in their version of the budgetSupport $ 1.1 billion annual money to restrict and trade and include a $ 750 million loan for Bay Area transit systems.

As Newsom and legislative leaders negotiate a final version of the budget over the next few weeks, their huge differences in transit funding will be one of the main questions.

Meanwhile, Bay Area legislators and civilian groups are sponsoring legislation that would allow transit systems to seek higher taxes.

The State Senate has accepted Senate Bill 63Which would allow a regional sales tax, at least half percent and possibly a complete percentage, to be placed on the newsletter 2026.

If the legislation earns final approval and voters are passing the sales tax, it will generate about $ 500 million a year for Bay Area systems, according to the Senate Analysis of the measure. Senator Scott Wiener, Democrat from San Francisco and the lead author of the bill describes it as “such a necessary beam of hope.”

However, sales tax bill has its critics, as the region transit systems, in particular, Bay Area’s regional transit, often seems to be controlled by their unions.

David Crane, who heads Manage for California And he describes himself as a “proud card carrier that rides Bart and SF Muni” fired a sharp critic of BART to legislators, citing his very developed workforce from 3,985 employees in 2019 to 4,292 in 2024, even when the race was announced.

“Between 2019 and 2024, Bart’s boards fell by 57 percent, but the staff increased and the annual employee payments increased by an astonishing 32 percent,” Crane wrote. “This is a big problem, as employee payments now amount to $ 171,000 per employee, compared to $ 140,000 in 2019, and represent 54 percent of BART’s net operating costs.

“The productivity of BART employees is bad and is moving in the wrong direction. Before asking taxpayers for more money for transit agencies, you must require transit agencies to drastically improve the productivity of employees. I know you scare you because of the political power of the public, but the public transit is to be the public. you prevail. “

Crane’s criticism did not prevent the Senate from passing the SB 63 by 28-10 votes, but raises some valid performance questions that could be attached to many public services and may influence the transit taxation elections next year.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.