#transit-funding

#transit-funding

Keeping our trains and buses running frequently and reliably is essential for the future of the Bay Area, said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who authored the bill and stressed that the measure is critical to ensuring the Bay Area's transit systems don't go off a fiscal cliff. Since ridership plummeted during the pandemic, the Bay Area's transit systems have been reliant on emergency funding to help them close their yearly budget deficits.

Toll and fare evasion cost the MTA an estimated $1 billion in 2024, though the agency and partners are now reversing the upward trend, according to a report published Thursday by a financial civic group in NYC. Despite the astounding financial loss, the Citizens Budget Committee's (CBC) report, No Fare: The Costs of MTA Fare and Toll Evasion, found that the MTA is starting to stem evasion with the help of the NYPD and state officials.

Zarutska was fatally stabbed by a fellow passenger who sat behind her in what appeared to be an unprovoked attack. Police have since arrested DeCarlos Brown Jr., who reportedly had a history of violent crime and whose mother said he had began acting "aggressive at home" following a recent schizophrenia diagnosis. (Experts emphasize that the vast majority of people with schizophrenia never commit violence, and are in fact 14 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than its perpetrators.)

The loan included in a budget deal between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature earlier this summer was designed as a bridge to keep BART, San Francisco's Muni, AC Transit in the East Bay and Caltrain on the Peninsula afloat through 2026. The hope was that by then, lawmakers could persuade voters to back a long-term funding source, likely through a regional sales tax measure.

"The additional half-cent mass transit bailout would raise the rate to 10.25% if approved in 2026, affecting sales tax rates in Santa Clara County."

The initial figure didn't factor in those additional costs. We have to build. Everyone talked about a Scarborough subway. No one would do anything.