Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Public Transit
Muni Puts Onetime Funds Toward Reducing Service Cuts
Posted
By Joe Eskenazi
on Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 7:15 AM
click to enlarge
It's not recommended to look a gift horse in the mouth -- but this one has false teeth.
The move to reduce Muni service cuts from 10 percent to 5 percent
hammered out last month became official yesterday with
a vote from the Municipal Transportation Agency board. While it'll be a welcome development to wait half as long for some of Muni's busiest lines, it warrants mentioning that the money to do so hails almost exclusively from onetime sources.
Here's the breakdown: $7 million from the County Transportation Authority; $4 million from the Municipal Transportation Commission; and $900,000 from sending full-time union employees back to work.
Service cuts will be rolled back Sept. 4; the agency hopes to roll back cuts altogether in 2012 (though all of this is contingent on the Board of Supervisors approving Muni's budget and the aforementioned funds being paid out in a timely fashion) .Since the money enabling yesterday's vote, again, stems from onetime sources, however, it's conceivable that the agency could well be cutting service again in future years. But, you know, maybe things will work out for the best.
A complete list of the service cut restorations approved by the SFMTA board can be viewed here.
In other Muni news, police are claiming a 50 percent reduction in crime since undercover officers began an operation of riding on buses and trains.
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Tags: MTA board, Muni, service cuts, Image
About The Author
Joe Eskenazi
Bio:
Joe Eskenazi was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.
"Your humble narrator" was a staff writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015.
He resides in the Excelsior with his wife, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.
