Public transportation advocates and Bay Area lawmakers like State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, are pushing for a new bridge toll increase to bolster public transportation funding and prevent drastic service cuts.
Introduced on Monday, Senate Bill 532 would impose a temporary toll increase of $1.50 on seven Bay Area bridges for five years, starting in 2024.
The toll increase would generate an additional $180 million a year over the five-year period to improve Bay Area public transportation services like BART and SF Muni, said proponents.
“Having strong public transit systems is vital to our economy, our equity goals and our ability to effectively respond to the climate crisis,” said Jeff Tumlin, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency director of transportation.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees transportation for the region, would be responsible for directing funds to appropriate agencies.
At least 90 percent of toll revenues would be used to maintain service at current levels, while up to 10 percent could fund reform initiatives surrounding service restoration and safety improvements, according to the bill legislation.
Wiener said the bill would be “critical lifeline funding” for transit systems as they recover from plummeting ridership numbers post-pandemic and search for funding outside of federal emergency assistance dollars, which will soon dry up.
Earlier in June, the Legislature released a state budget agreement that would allocate $400 million to Bay Area transit agencies over the next three years, which Wiener said is a major step forward to resolving the “fiscal cliff issue.” But it’s not enough to fully prevent the elimination of bus lines or reductions in weekend and nighttime services, he said.
“We’ve made good progress in this year’s budget, but the future of public transportation in the Bay Area is still under threat due to pandemic-related operational deficits that, without help, will lead to severe service cuts,” said Wiener.
“It is up to the Bay Area to engage in financial self-help and fill the remaining hole in our budget,” he said.
Yeon Park, president of the Alameda County Labor Council and vice president of SEIU 1021, added that the budget cuts do not just affect transit schedules, but also transit workers. Park said the bill would also protect the jobs of those who operate and maintain the systems.
“Without an additional revenue stream, BART could be forced to implement irrecoverable service costs and lay off a highly-skill workforce next year,” Park said. “Cuts to the transit workforce will leave capital projects in limbo. New trains cannot be put into service without our skilled technicians.”
The bill is sponsored by TransForm, Bay Area-based transportation advocacy group, and is backed by a group of Bay Area lawmakers, including senators Dave Cortese and Josh Becker, and assemblymembers Matt Haney, Phil Ting, Alex Lee, Mia Bonta and Buffy Wicks.
Ting said the funds will buy agencies enough time to continue services until they find a stable source of funding. Proponents mentioned a potential regional ballot measure that could secure long-term funding for transit agencies that could pop up in 2026.
“While the temporary toll increase would be painful, the alternative is worse. We cannot let our transit agencies cut services if we care about the economy and transportation equity,” Ting said.
The bill isn’t met with unanimous approval, however.
State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Contra Costa, said he will “vigorously oppose” another bridge toll increase. He said BART first needs to receive more fiscal oversight to ensure that funds will actually improve transit safety and efficiency.
He said the last toll increase in 2018 promised to fund a fully operational BART Office of the Inspector General, an independent watchdog office that would investigate fraud and abuse within the agency, only for it to be “starved” of money by the agency’s board of directors.
“Transit riders and taxpayers have witnessed firsthand the trail of broken promises by advocates for bridge toll increases,” Glazer said. “We know from hard-learned experience that new funding does not ensure proper oversight and accountability at BART.”
$180 million? Is that to paint more green lines for even more unused bike lanes? Clearly, public transit is not the manner which most want to get to and fro, perhaps due to the increased risks of assault/theft, etc., or having to step around the bums (though not had to do that myself lately). Instead of trying to extract money from the tax payer, why not trim the costs internally of these public transit organizations, like any business would have to do. And I am against, just as a natural response, anything that repellent wretch weiner is behind. I am pleased, and somewhat surprised, that Glazer is voicing opposition to a dim proposal, so good on him!
No, it is to pay for all the riderless cars on BART. All the skank is chasing the legit riders away. They are driving again so now BART has to make up the difference by charging more!
Temporary my a$$…
Financially illiterate morons are the norm in Sacramento! California will implode in the near future, can’t wait to leave for a much better place.
NO TOLL INCREASE IS TEMPORARY!
Perfect, penalize those who have to cross a bridge for work.
Will incentivize employees to demand ability to work from home reducing bridge toll revenue and as companies allow remote work bart ridership will also drop.
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Ever notice the universal answer to problems by majority of DEMs and their unelected minions is to stick it trying to work for a living and stay off public assistance. Is no wonder why people are moving out of mismanaged DEM controlled CA.
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For more misery continue voting for DEMs.
Don’t worry folks, for a mere $1.50 more for crossing a bridge the trains and busses will run on time even if there are no riders.
Kinda like every other communist country.
The politicians always say temporary increase for X years. When have toll fees ever come down?
Absolutely NOT ok!!! Toll is already too expensive for those that cross bridges to commute to work! Besides what did they do with all the money they saved when they let go of all the people working the actual toll booths?! So tired of this, and what’s more sad people not affected by this will probably vote yes! Absolutely disgusting!
Tighten your belt and live within your means. We all have to do it in these tough times. No bailouts. No increases.
It’s time that transit agencies start living within their means and provide services based on fares alone. If transit agencies need more funding they should lead by example by increasing fares first and adjusting service schedules.
And they need to start enforcing fare paying, and not look the other way as a big portion of the public just jumps the fair gate and doesn’t pay. ( they seem to think that segments of society deserve to not pay for “Equity” reasons. Well the rest of us are getting pretty Fed Up
I would rather know who’s pockets gets lined with all this money. They are doing nothing but ripping us off by there own bad management of these transportation scams. The books need to be completely opened up and gone through to see how every penny has been spent and who and why they received them.
“………vital to our economy, our equity goals and our ability to effectively respond to the climate crisis,”
Typical Kool Aid drinking lib-speak.
The word starts with a “b” and ends with a “t” and has 8 letters.
It will never go back down … like supposed sales tax increases …. when will voters wake up ? I hope this dumb axx is out of office on the next election or better yet, recall… oh right – the fare goes up another $1.00 in a year – so $2.50 increase – $9.50 to cross the bridge that is already paid for!!
At Some point it was supposed to be free. the toll authority had enough money in the 80’s to set up a perpetuity for the maintenance. Then along came the Earthquake and the rest is history…
Normally I would disagree with all the old geezer comments, but I absolutely agree with the sentiments that BART need to tighten their belt and stick it up to the Union to cut salary expense. All these talks about being in deficit and there was never one mentioning of cutting salaries as one way to balance the books.
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BAILOUT!
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Public transit agencies should cut executive and management salaries BEFORE extorting bridge commuters.
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… and a “temporary” increase for five years? Commuters are constantly getting reamed by liberal lawmakers..
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Since when has a “temporary” toll increase ever expired? Liberals ram thru legislation to make “temporary” increases permanent with very little coverage by the media.
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Defend the toxic senate rats i
I love it when politicians say it will be “temporary.” Bend over for another one taxpayers. Who is actually ignorant enough to believe that idiot? When I look at the bus loads in Coco County, there are usually 2 or 3 people on a bus. No wonder they need more money. BART ridership is down due to remote employment and safety concerns.
It’s called BOHICA!
So they want to charge hardworking people that have to commute across the bridge more money so public transit can reach its “equity and climate-crisis goals”. I take that to mean that all the bums and transients , and intercity folks get to ride free (skip out on paying fares)
I’m Bart and buses, as they do now, causing the deficit to begin with. You know I’m beginning to think it doesn’t pay to be an honest hard-working person anymore, because it’s going to just be taken away by both the government and the underbelly of society individuals who just steal and take.
It’s for equity, i.e. socialism. The middle class is disappearing, just as the Dems/”Progressives” want it to so they can have more control of the masses.
Riding BART is a lousy experience. Gonna need a lot more money to change that.
I like the Labor President saying this will protect jobs. Ok dude, what are those jobs doing? Is the work being done efficiently, how can you help lower expenses instead of just agreeing to more money for your workers.
Ridership plummeted. Causes?
Securing funding from temporary sources?
Fiscal oversight. Already in place.
The massive commute traffic is basically unsafe too.
Solutions? If any. Start at the beginning.