Select Committee meets to hash out framework for future transit regional measure
Stakeholders across the Bay Area convened at the inaugural Transportation Revenue Measure Select Committee in an effort to reset the conversation and reach a consensus around a future regional funding measure. The meeting agenda and recording can be found here.
Background
The Select Committee was formed in the wake of the authorizing legislation for a Bay Area transit funding measure being pulled from this year’s legislative cycle to allow more time to reach agreement. A regional measure remains our best hope to cement a transformative path forward for Bay Area transit and Bay Area residents have been consistently supportive of a ballot measure that saves transit service and improves the experience for riders.
A MTC staff presentation laid the groundwork for the importance of passing a regional funding measure. Bay Area transit ridership has steadily risen to around 65% of pre-pandemic ridership levels, but major challenges still remain. Ridership recovery has been uneven across providers, with local bus agencies performing strongly and regional rail providers (Caltrain and BART) experiencing the slowest recovery.
This is especially problematic for BART and Caltrain, given that these services relied the most heavily on fare revenues to pay for operations and now face the most steep annual fare revenue reductions. Agencies that relied more on dedicated county and local funding generally have lower operating deficits.
Without a regional funding measure or other new revenue source, transit agencies are faced with an anticipated cumulative budget deficit between $2 to $2.7 billion through FY2027-28. Inflation has driven up the cost of providing transit service too, with the region now spending $4.3 billion annually for operators compared to $3.5 billion pre-pandemic.
Committee members agree on the need to address fiscal cliff, include transit improvements in a regional measure
In an anonymous live poll at the meeting, there was broad agreement on top priorities - addressing the fiscal cliff, improvements for transit riders, network management, and finally funding items beyond transit operations. Committee members recognized that there is a diversity of needs across the 9-county Bay Area, but that a region-wide transportation funding measure remains crucial to addressing shared transportation challenges. A majority of Select Committee members at the meeting recommended that a regional measure should include all 9 counties. Two Committee members voted it should include between 5-9 counties, two members said between 3-9 counties, and two members were absent.
There was also a broad consensus that a regional transportation funding measure must include reforms to improve the transit network. Both Select Committee Chair Spering and MTC Chair Pedroza pointed to the Transit Transformation Action Plan’s recommendations as needing to be incorporated into the goals of a regional measure.
“We can’t just generate money for the revenues for the fiscal cliff and not have any changes. The people we polled, they want changes. We would be falling way short if we don’t do it,” Spering said. “This measure could be that transformational action that’s going to be taken in the Bay Area…. An effective and improved public transit system for the Bay Area is important for all of us, regardless of where you live and work. Transit matters to all of us.”
“This is our moment to do things differently,” Alfredo Pedroza said at the meeting. “I’m not interested in just going back to how we were doing business before. It has to fundamentally change building off of what we were doing well, but also acknowledging it’s not just new money that we are going to keep providing, but it is initiatives and outcomes that we have to see.”
David Canepa emphasized that a strong network manager will be a critical piece of a regional measure because achieving transformational change will be extraordinarily challenging without it.
Adina Levin stressed that focusing on addressing the fiscal cliff and staving off cuts is insufficient. It is critical to craft a measure with service benefits and customer-facing improvements, and to clearly communicate the benefits that a regional measure will provide to communities. She noted that regions around the world and North America with service oriented towards a variety of riders with all day and frequent service experienced the strongest transit ridership recoveries.
She observed that transforming service to meet the needs of all trip types – not just 9-to-5 white-collar commuters – is important to growing ridership. Levin noted that two-thirds of working low-income people drive to work and that a regional measure is an opportunity to meet the needs of people who the system wasn’t working for. In particular, the Voices of Public Transportation Coalition (of which Seamless Bay Area is a member) supports addressing the needs of low-income people, people with disabilities, and older adults who disproportionately depend on transit.
“There are still people who depend on transit and we need to make the transit work for them. And if we focus on making sure it works for them, it will work for everyone,” said Ellen Wu of Urban Habitat. “Really focusing on not losing the folks who are depending on transit now and making sure we fix the structural challenges that all the operators have had in terms of operations dollars is really, really critical and that is centering the people we talk about centering.”
Next Steps:
The Select Committee will meet monthly until October. By then, the goal is for the Select Committee to approve and endorse a regional measure framework.
At their 2nd meeting in July, committee members will discuss potential revenue sources, the progressivity and impact of revenue sources, potential size of revenue mechanism and reviewing polling of the voters’ desires.
Their 3rd meeting in August will put forth a single or multiple proposed frameworks that include: purpose, geographic scope, revenue source options and estimated amounts, eligible expenditure categories, funding distribution framework, and policy provisions. Committee members will discuss and refine the options.
The 4th meeting in September will confront trade-offs. If one framework emerges as the preferred option, then they will begin refining key aspects, such as the network management policy provision. If more than one option is being considered, members will discuss the pros and cons of each framework, consider their viability with voters and in the legislature, and ultimately choose a preferred framework to refine at their final October meeting. Stuart noted that Bay Area state legislators and their staff will be kept in constant communication throughout this process.
At the final October meeting, the Committee will finalize and approve a framework that includes an expenditure plan, policy provisions, revenue source(s), and geographic scope of the regional measure.
“It won’t mean that some people don’t have reservations [...] it doesn’t mean it’s your dream scenario if you were just able to write it yourselves, but it means that everyone understands that this will move the region forward on all the things you just talked about and are able to endorse it,” said Stuart Cohen, the facilitator for the meeting.