San Francisco transportation officials are looking at revamping its fare system, including increased cash fares.
San Francisco transportation officials are looking at revamping its fare system as they begin to discuss the upcoming two-year budget.
The discussion Tuesday at a special workshop meeting of the Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors led to talks of possibly increasing cash fares and leaving Clipper fares alone and giving a smaller discount on fares to seniors, youth and disabled riders as possible new revenue sources.
The Municipal Transportation Agency’s preliminary operating budget for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 fiscal years will top $1 billion, but will carry deficits of $13.3 million in 2017 and $14.3 million in 2018, said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin:
“Our expenditures grow faster than our revenues, which leaves us with modest but real shortfalls that we will need to address.”
Some of those expenditures included in the baseline preliminary budget are higher pension costs,the hiring of more Muni operators during the last year and other commitments and contracts such as a 3.25 percent wage increase for operators previously negotiated in 2014.
On the revenue side, the transit agency included its automatic fare indexing, which includes increases of fares, fines and fees based on the Bay Area Labor Consumer Price Index. A Muni-only Fast Pass would jump from $70 to $73 in the 2016-2017 fiscal year and then to $75 the following year.
The transit agency will also have funds from the 2014 voter-approved Proposition B, which increases funding for Muni based on population growth. Those funds though will only be used for capital improvements, said Reiskin.
Reiskin said that the transit agency has about 50 percent of riders still paying cash on Muni as opposed to using Clipper:
“One way other transit agencies in this region, in the country and the world have facilitated the shift by providing a monetary incentive.”
He also suggested to use some of the transit agency reserve funds for some capital projects that have difficulty in finding funding for. The board’s policy is to have a reserve fund of a minimum of 10 percent of the annual operating budget.
For the upcoming budget, it would require the transit agency to have $100 million in reserves. Reiskin said the reserve fund is above 20 percent of the annual budget.
The transit agency dipped into its reserve funds during the last recession. SFMTA board Director Malcolm Heinickie said that was an exception because it kept Muni going.
Heinickie said he would like to keep the reserve funds above 10 percent of the annual budget in case of another economic downturn. He said he would consider using the funds if there was a one-time expense that would save money over time or increase efficiency, and keep reserve funds above 15 percent of the annual budget:
“That’s really got to be the criteria. It’s not something we want. It’s something that really is a valuable investment of our money.”
Heinickie also supported the idea of raising cash fares as a possible new revenue source:
“I think not only will it raise money, but it will serve an overall benefit of getting off cash fares, which have all sorts of problems. I’ll just name one. They slow the bus down. It’s just that simple.”
No figure was discussed on how much cash fares could possibly increase.
On the topic of increasing senior/disabled and youth fares, Reiskin said since the transit agency has now a low- and moderate income program for free Muni, and that board members should look into scaling back the fare discount closer to 50 percent, which is the federal mandate for senior fares. The discount from the SFMTA is closer to 66 percent.
The SFMTA board will get two more updates on the budget in February and March and will host two town hall meetings on March 9 and 23. The board will have two opportunities in April to adopt the budget.
Once adopted, the budget will go before the Board of Supervisors for approval in May. The new fiscal year begins on July 1.
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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Bring back the very successful and widely accepted Sunday parking meter program. Its elimination cost Muni about 11 million dollars/year.
Bring it back an the SFMTA will burn through that money too. I have have a better idea. The SFMTA has almost 30,000 employees who get reduced parking parking rates at city garages. End the subsidy so that MTA employees pay the sames as city residents.
Heres another idea. Residents Oppose Bus Rapid Transit Plans. http://www.stopmunibrt.org/ The SFMTA forces these terrible projects on to residents and businesses and then complains when they don’t have enough money to finish them.
San Francisco loves to invent new ways to steal even more of our money. The inefficiency of MUNI and the ridiculous salaries (at SFMTA) are being subsidized by these meter fees and parking tickets. The average yearly salary of a MUNI bus driver is well over $100,000, and there are over 150 office workers at SFMTA making well over $100,000 per year.http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Department.aspx?entityid=410&fiscalyear=2014&departmentid=6925
Hourly parking meter rates have quadrupled since 1992. The meter rates in SF are the second highest in the land, and the fees and penalties for parking citations are the highest in the country. Also, the revenue of the parking meters and the revenue from traffic citation are not only paying for themselves, but are also subsidizing
MUNI. To add insult to injury SFMTA/ MUNI employees only pay $90 for monthly parking / compared to $305-$360 for ordinary citizens
See excerpt from collective bargaining agreement:
“PARKING FACILITIES
152.
The SFMTA agrees to participate, on behalf of service critical employees at the, in Union/ City discussions regarding parking facilities. For the duration of this Agreement, the monthly rate for basic employee parking at any SFMTA operated and controlled parking facilities, will not exceed rates in effect as of June 1, 2004 or the
price of a MUNI Fast Pass, plus $10, whichever is higher.”
Do it! We’re a city with a lot of tourism. We should use that tourism to improve our infrastructure. Everyone else will just keep using clipper card.