March 18 2003

Opinion

THE PLANNED MUNI fare hike is not a done deal. Neither are the service cuts, layoffs, and pay cuts Muni management wants to dump on Muni riders and workers.

Muni wants to raise the cash fare from $1 to $1.25 and raise the monthly Fast Pass from $35 to $45. The youth/senior/disabled monthly pass would increase from $8 to $10. The agency also wants to hike the paratransit lift-van fare from 40¢ to $1 and eliminate the $8 monthly pass.

This is not the end of it. Muni is talking about raising the fare again next year, from $1.25 to $1.50.

Muni officials are also planning to lengthen the time between some buses – asking you to pay more to wait longer. And Muni management is demanding that its workers fork over millions of dollars in concessions – or risk mass layoffs.

Apologists for the fare hike point to the higher fares of other nearby, more suburban transit systems. A better comparison would be cities like Boston, where the bus fare is 75¢. San Francisco should lead the way to affordable transit, not tail after bad policies in other areas.

City leaders say they need the money ... but so do we! Many of us in San Francisco who run a cash register or clean hotel rooms or wash the buses are struggling these days.

In reality, transit fares are purely political. A fare hike is a hit to people who depend on Muni to get to work or to classes or to doctor appointments. It is a particular hit to communities of color, such as those in the Mission District and the Bayview. Hiking the fare amounts to a wage cut for riders.

If Muni and the city are in such dire need of funds, why have they been so shy about making downtown corporations and property owners pay for the Muni service they rely on? Consider:

• The city gave downtown corporations a $350 million tax cut over the next 10 years when the Board of Supervisors caved in to the lawsuit over the city's long-standing business tax.

• The city gave big business a $77 million tax cut over the past five years through the "new jobs tax credit" and "surplus business tax credit."

• The city gave the Gap $18 million in tax breaks to build its new headquarters on the Embarcadero.

• When the Transit Impact Development Fee for new office buildings was set up in 1981, it was estimated that this fee paid no more than half of the cost of providing Muni service for new developments. Downtown office buildings would be worth a heck of a lot less, and downtown corporations would not be able to function, without Muni delivering workers and customers to their doors. It is long past time to make downtown pay for this service.

Due to Proposition E, which was foisted on an unwary public back in 1999, it takes a two-thirds majority of the Board of Supervisors' eight votes to overturn the decision of the Municipal Transportation Agency (mayoral appointees who now oversee Muni) to hike fares. We will press the supes to do the right thing, but if they don't have the guts to stand with Muni riders and workers, there are other ways to throw a monkey wrench into the agency's plans.

There is currently a petition in the works to secure a ballot measure next November that would freeze the cash fare at $1. The measure would require a vote of the people for future fare hikes. Look to sign the petition when it comes out.

In any event, if and when Muni tries to implement a fare hike, plans are afoot to respond with a fare strike. In 1955, Rosa Parks made history by demanding the right to sit at the front of the bus. In 2003 San Franciscans are demanding our right to stay on the bus.

Transit Justice says no to Muni fare hikes, service cuts, layoffs, and pay cuts. Freeze the fare!