{"id":1647,"date":"2010-03-10T01:49:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T09:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/10\/minding-muni-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T07:56:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T15:56:44","slug":"minding-muni-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/1647\/minding-muni-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Minding Muni, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nConcerned citizens watch a February 26 meeting
\nof the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
\nwhich met to discuss Muni service cuts and fare increases
\nto close a $12.1 million budget shortfall in the current fiscal year.
\nPhotos by Luke Thomas\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sue Vaughan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

March 10, 2010<\/p>\n

On Friday, February 26, facing yet another in an ongoing series of deficits, the seven members of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) took drastic action: they decided not to raise the cost of monthly bus passes for seniors, disabled, and youth.\u00c2\u00a0 That proposal – to charge $30 for those passes starting on May 1 – would have raised $1 million to help fill the $12.1 million Fiscal Year 2010 budget gap.<\/p>\n

The day before, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who wields the power of appointment to the SFMTA board, announced the proposal to raise fares for seniors, disabled, and youth would be pulled<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 But the momentum was not to be stopped.\u00c2\u00a0 Disabled and senior individuals – and groups representing those individuals – organized and turned out by the hundreds<\/a> for the meeting.<\/p>\n

The decision to withdraw that proposal may have allowed a majority of the Board of Directors to quietly vote for something even more drastic: cutting transit service by 10 percent<\/a> starting May 1.<\/p>\n

That’s nearly the equivalent of one month’s worth of bus service, a retired 30-year veteran of the agency pointed out.<\/p>\n

Included in their vote was a decision to eliminate free parking for legislative aides and commissioners at the Performing Arts Garage and the Civic Center Garage, charge transaction fees for some services, raise the residential parking permit fee to $96, and create premium monthly passes worth $70 for use of the express buses to and from downtown and for the cable cars.<\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may seem that Progressive Era and New Deal values are in the ascendency with Democratic president and Democrats in the majority in both houses of Congress.\u00c2\u00a0 But anti-government forces that have been brewing for decades are winning their fight to destroy government programs that have evolved since the early 1900s.\u00c2\u00a0 In 1978, they succeeded in California with the passage of Proposition 13.\u00c2\u00a0 This measure was marketed as protection for senior homeowners; however, it also has a clause requiring a two-thirds super majority in the state legislature in order to raise state taxes.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, a minority wields more power than the majority.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, Democrats nationally adopted anti-government values themselves under the ‘Reinvention of Government’ rubric whose goal has been to downsize government and privatize the commons.\u00c2\u00a0 And with the passage of California’s Proposition 218<\/a>, in 1996, a two-thirds majority became applicable to local tax measures dedicated to specific purposes.\u00c2\u00a0 As a result, in California, programs from our public education and public parks to our public transportation systems are facing imminent collapse.<\/p>\n

Local impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last April, facing a $128.9 million deficit<\/a>, the San Francisco Planning Department approved the SFMTA Board of Directors four-to-three vote to declare a fiscal emergency so that the agency could waive California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for environmental review and raise fares and cut service to close the budget gap. The SFMTA has been operating under that declaration ever since – and is now using it to authorize the 10 percent service cuts – up to 325,000 service hours per year.<\/p>\n

On March 2, the Board of Directors met again.\u00c2\u00a0 Item 10 on their agenda was a public hearing to consider a similar declaration of fiscal emergency for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, with projected deficits at $56.4 million and $45 million respectively.\u00c2\u00a0 They will vote on whether to declare a fiscal emergency at their regularly scheduled March 30 meeting.\u00c2\u00a0 Options for closing the FY 2011 deficit and the FY 2012 deficit include:<\/p>\n